ABSTRACT
Alarmed by the high level of teenage pregnancies in the UK, the national government set new targets to be achieved within a few years. The Teenage Pregnancy Strategy Committee (TPSC) was charged with achieving these targets for the London Borough of Newham. The TPSC realised that although ongoing projects had reduced the teenage pregnancy rate, they had not done so at a sufficient pace. The TPSC recognised it needed to explore more effective and efficient ways to achieve its targets. A two-phased approach was agreed upon. The first phase was to consist of problem structuring, using interviews as well as group causal mapping to achieve a shared and improved understanding of the issues related to teenage pregnancy. Interview results were captured in individual cognitive maps which were then integrated in a merged map. The merged map also showed which goals and values were shared among the group. The group causal mapping session generated 144 issues in less than half an hour. These were grouped in clusters of closely linked concepts. Comparing the merged and group map pointed to structural similarities as well as a number of differences. The maps formed the basis for a comparison of different options to achieve TPSC’s targets. This second phase of the intervention is reported in Chapter 11.
