Teenage pregnancy rates in Swindon have been dropping for some time.

But Coun Mary Martin, the borough council’s cabinet member for children’s services, believes that keeping those under 18 in education or training until they are adults has helped see the rate of teenage conceptions fall to just a third of what it was in 2000. There were 72 conceptions to girls under 18 in the town in 2016.

Coun Martin said: “Since I’ve been involved at the borough council teenage pregnancy rates have been coming down, but I think there was a kicker when the school-leaving age was effectively raised to 18.

“I think people come out from their education now much better informed about both risks and the range of opportunities they can take up and they are much better equipped to handle that range of opportunities.

“It’s good news.”

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She also praised work done to improve the number of school pupils achieving a grade five “strong pass” in GCSE English and maths – while the 39 per cent who did so last August is four points lower than the national average, it was a three per cent increase on the previous year.

Coun Martin said: “There’s a lot of work going on. Most schools are run as academies – so we don’t have direct control – but one very successful initiative is the Swindon Challenge, where schools have been coming up with ideas and schemes to improve pass rates.

“That’s been particularly successful in maths, some of the work I’ve seen there has been particularly pleasing. We are seeing good results and those are available to every school in Swindon.”