TEENAGE pregnancy rates for Hertfordshire have dropped for the third year in a row.

The number of girls under 18 in the county who became pregnant in 2005 fell by eight per cent, according to new figures released last week.

This shows a year on year decrease by 22.6 per cent since 1998.

The Hertfordshire teenage pregnancy rate for 2005 is 24.8 per 1,000 girls aged 15-17 and remains well below the national average of 41.1 girls per 1,000 and a regional average of 32.7 for the same period.

Jane Pitman, executive member for Children's Services, said: "This is really good news for us locally and shows we are making good progress towards our 2010 goal of reducing teenage conceptions in the county by 45 per cent."

Christine Oker, Teenage Pregnancy Strategy manager for Hertfordshire, said: "There are a number of factors which have contributed to our ongoing success in reducing under-18 conception rates. We have made it a local priority, and strong partnership working is at the heart of what we do.

"We work directly with young people themselves, and involve them in our strategy and with a range of local services including schools, the youth service, parents, carers and professionals. We have also developed a range of information resources including Numbers U Need, a credit card sized booklet containing relevant contact numbers and services.

"We target high risk areas and work with vulnerable groups of young people as well as developing resources to be used in county schools for the teaching of sex and relationships education (SRE). We distribute Parentline Plus ' Time to Talk' leaflets ,which are available through schools, health centres, GP surgeries and other local outlets.

"We are also developing a campaign aimed at at boys aged between 13 and 15, and talking to young people to find out what they actually want ,as well as working with school pupils to further strengthen our SRE work."

The figures for 2005 are provisional and have not yet been broken down into smaller areas of the county.