There may be a change in policy on cutting the number of teenage mums.

This week, the mother of three sisters who conceived at the ages of 12, 16 and 14, blamed the lack of sex education at school.

Now, the Government has warned it can no longer contain the number of UK teens who are getting pregnant, and wants parents to help deal with the problem.

If not, it may not meet its target to halve the national teenage pregnancy rate - the highest in Western Europe - before 2010.

Carly Walker, teenage pregnancy co-ordinator for York and North Yorkshire, said teenage pregnancies were falling locally. Figures from 2003 show there were 112 pregnant teens in York - a rate of 35.1 in every thousand. This compares to 123 - 39.5 in a thousand - in 2002.

But there are still more pregnant teens than in 1998, when 100 under-18 York girls conceived.

She said the city would struggle to meet the Government's target unless more people took responsibility

She said. "Everybody has a responsibility to reduce teenage pregnancies, but it takes a lot of time to change attitudes and behaviour.

"If parents talk to their children about sex and relationships then it might encourage children to delay having sex.

"Not everybody feels comfortable talking to their children about it, but young people tell us that they would like their parents to talk about relationships and sex with them."

Carly said some teenagers were unaware of where to get free contraception and worried about confidentiality issues.

Many only visit support services after they have had sex for the first time - something she wants to change.

"We're doing a lot of work with teachers and school nurses - both in primary and secondary schools," she said.

"With primary, it's looking at relationships and friendships and building up self-confidence so young people respect themselves and later on they can say: 'I'm not ready to have sex'."

Most of York's pregnant teens are 16 or 17-year-olds. Only about half will have their babies.

For a third of them, it is their second pregnancy.

Carly said it was important to help girls cope when their babies arrived.

In York and North Yorkshire, young mums can qualify for a Care To Learn grant, which helps them continue their education.

This might help teenagers avoid the patterns their parents fell in to.

Carly said: "In my experience, I have found that if you are a teenage parent then your child is more likely to become a teenage parent as well, which is why we're trying to help parents go back to school or college and get a good lifestyle for youngsters.

"Young people are bombarded with mixed messages about sex. They read about it in magazines and watch programmes like Celebrity Love Island. They're bombarded with confusing messages making them think that everybody's having sex.

"We have a long way to go and a lot of hard work to do to reduce teenage pregnancy rates but I think if we strengthen our efforts and everybody plays their part then we can do it."

Updated: 09:45 Friday, May 27, 2005