Honorary Professor University of Bradford, HonDUni (Greenwich), Honorary Fellow, College of Sexual and Reproductive Health

Director - Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange

I joined the University in February 2013 as Director of the first Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange

I led the implementation of the previous Labour Government's Teenage Pregnancy Strategy for England, which has led to a 70% reduction in the under-18 conception rate to the lowest level for 40 years, and helped improve maternity and postnatal support for young parents.

The aim of the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange is to build on the success of the Strategy and ensure the lessons learned are transferred to policy makers and strategic leaders - in the UK and internationally - and embedded in the training of relevant practitioners.

My knowledge and skills on teenage pregnancy are drawn from frontline experience as a family planning nurse and health visitor and over 40 years strategic leadership – 13 years as Policy Director for Brook, the UK's leading young people's sexual health charity. 12 years in government implementing the strategy and eight years as teenage pregnancy advisor to Public Health England. I have worked with the World Health Organisation to share the success factors of the Strategy with other countries seeking to address high teenage pregnancy rates and improve adolescent sexual and reproductive health. Over the last eight years, the learning has been shared with Thailand, Mexico, Argentina, Panama and Bogota.

I have extensive experience of supporting partnerships between local government and health, and working with a wide range of locally elected politicians, senior leaders in health and local government, commissioners and frontline health and non-health practitioners. My book - Teenage pregnancy and young parenthood: effective policy and practice, written with Professor Roger Ingham of Southampton University, in collaboration with Dr Venkatraman Chandra-Mouli from WHO was published by Routledge in 2018 as part of their Adolescence and Society Series. A second edition, ‘what happened next’ was published in 2024, with Joanna Nichols, Associate Professor at University of Bradford, an additional author.

I am Chair of the Sex Education Forum, a national charity working with partners to achieve quality relationships and sex education for all children and young people. I am an Advisory Council member of the Association for Young People’s Health

Contact Details

E: alison.hadley@beds.ac.uk