NEW efforts to cut teenage pregnancy rates in the borough are to be made by the council.

Recommendations for dealing with the problem, made by the council's scrutiny committee in January, were accepted by the cabinet on Monday.

Latest available figures for 2008 show that 54.6 in every 1,000 under-18s fell pregnant in Croydon, compared with 41.6 per 1,000 in London as a whole.

Recommendations from the scrutiny committee included ensuring schools provide consistent sex and relationship education (SRE) and that teachers were trained properly in the subject.

Members also called on SRE to become embedded in youth service provision and that more effort was made to educate young men and boys about their responsibilities in helping reduce pregnancy rates among teenage girls.

In addition the committee called for more work to be done to identify at-risk groups.

Tim Pollard, the council's cabinet member for children, young people and learners, said dealing with teenage pregnancy rates would remain a priority, despite pressures on the council's education budget.