A MAJOR Government grant should help tackle teenage pregnancies in Ryedale.

The Department of Health's teen pregnancy unit has allocated £30,000 to Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale's primary care trust (PCT) to help it lower teen pregnancy rates.

money will be spent on innovative projects aimed at young women and also young men and boys.

Public health adviser Liz White said the cash was a massive boost.

"We have had little resources put forward in the last few years - last year we only got £5,000, so this money will make a real difference," she said.

"It's a bit of a case of catching up for us, because a lot of inner cities with high teenage pregnancy rates have full-time workers dealing with teen pregnancies.

"We have been banging on and saying that we can't really tackle the problem until we have got the money to do it."

Last year a Young Mums-To-Be project ran as a pilot in Pickering after a successful start in Scarborough.

The recent funding will be used on new projects just starting up, she said. Money could be channelled towards developing information and resources with key sexual health messages to target men and boys.

A new development aimed at supporting partners of teenage mums who want to stay involved with their children is also set to get off the ground.

"We have got quite an active multi-agency steering group up-and-running," said Liz.

"We have asked for ideas from the organisations we work alongside on anything they feel may help us tackle the problem."

Figures for 1999 show the conception rate per 1,000 girls under age 18 was 31.9 in Scarborough and 23.8 in Ryedale. In North Yorkshire as a whole the figure was only 15.3. Training for those working with young people on relevant issues could be funded with the grant, which is to be spent in 2003 to 2004.

Work with parents could be piloted to improve awareness for teenagers and their families on the issue.

She said: "Conception rate figures for 2000 are expected at the end of July, but we have had preliminary figures to say that rates in Ryedale have actually risen, so we are wanting to improve that."

Updated: 09:52 Tuesday, June 10, 2003