Shaw Mary, Woolhead Gillian
Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2PR, UK.
Health Soc Care Community. 2006 Mar;14(2):177-84. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2006.00609.x.
The government has set a target of increasing the participation of teenage mothers in education, employment and training (EET) to 60% by 2010 to reduce their risk of long-term social exclusion. This paper presents the findings of a qualitative research project conducted in the South West region of England to establish the tracking practices employed by practitioners working with young parents to ascertain whether and to what extent teenage parents are engaged in EET. The range of support that is currently needed by and provided to teenage parents when returning to or continuing their EET was also investigated. Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 24 participants from a unitary authority, county and city within the region; participants were working in a variety of professional roles with responsibilities for teenage parents. The results show that in the South West there are currently no standard procedures or practices in place for effectively tracking the participation of teenage parents in EET. There was evidence of a good understanding of the needs of young parents amongst practitioners and that a variety of support was being provided to them. However, it needs to be understood, and addressed, that having contact with young parents and providing them with support does not necessarily lead to the standardised information that is needed in order to assess progress towards the target. We conclude that in order to assess in a meaningful way progress towards the target of 60% participation by 2010, a clear protocol for the collection and collation of information--and responsibility for this--needs to be developed and implemented.
政府已设定目标，到2010年将未成年母亲参与教育、就业和培训（EET）的比例提高到60%，以降低她们长期被社会排斥的风险。本文介绍了在英格兰西南部地区开展的一项定性研究项目的结果，该项目旨在确定与年轻父母打交道的从业者所采用的跟踪方法，以查明未成年父母是否以及在何种程度上参与了EET。同时还调查了未成年父母在重返或继续接受EET时目前所需的以及所得到的支持范围。对该地区一个单一管理区、郡和市的24名参与者进行了半结构化电话访谈；这些参与者担任着各种负责未成年父母事务的专业角色。结果显示，在西南部地区，目前没有有效的标准程序或做法来跟踪未成年父母参与EET的情况。有证据表明从业者对年轻父母的需求有很好的理解，并且正在为他们提供各种支持。然而，需要明白并解决的是，与年轻父母接触并为他们提供支持并不一定能获得评估实现目标进展情况所需的标准化信息。我们的结论是，为了以有意义的方式评估到2010年实现60%参与率这一目标的进展情况，需要制定并实施一个明确的信息收集和整理协议——以及对此负责的机制。
