Teachers have been asked for their input on Devon’s sex education policy in a bid to find out why the county has failed to reduce teenage pregnancies.

About 1,200 under-18s in Devon become pregnant every year, with rates as high as 4.7 per cent in poorer areas such as Exeter.

Devon County Council bosses say the rate is not falling fast enough to meet national targets for 2010. A teenage pregnancy board has been set up and officials have called in a national support team.

A task group, run by members of the council’s children and young people’s services scrutiny committee, will look at access to contraception for young people outside standard school and working days, and in schools and colleges.

Councillor Vanessa Newcombe, chair of the task group, said: “The levels of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy in some areas of Devon are a cause for concern.

“Improvements to sexual health services and programmes to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexaully transmitted infections have been made, but there is still more work to do.”

The closing date for submissions is November 1, 2009.