Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (Contraception), England, 2018/19 [NS]

This part provides a summary of activity recorded in the SRHAD collection. As the primary focus of the collection is contraception, it may not capture all non-contraception related activity taking place at SRH services. Overall contacts may be effected by changes in recording practices for non-contraception related activity over time, though efforts have been made with data providers in recent years to ensure completeness and consistency. Contacts for reasons of contraception should be less affected by these issues.

People may contact SRH services for a number of reasons, including but not exclusively:

• Provision of a main or supporting method of contraception, or contraception advice.
• Provision of emergency contraception.
• Removal of contraception devices.
• Sexual health advice and STI care.
• Pregnancy or abortion related issues.

For non-contraceptive activity taking place at SRH services, SRHAD only includes summary data. More detailed data on services relating to Genitourinary Medicine, is collated by Public Health England:

A contact is defined as a contact with the service, including external contacts, i.e. where an individual patient receives care outside the clinic setting, for example in his or her own home. Non-face to face contacts were added to the scope in version 2 of SRHAD from 2015/16.

Contacts by year^₁

In 2018/19 there were 1.93 million contacts with dedicated SRH services made by 1.22 million individuals. This represented a increase of 4% on the number of contacts in 2017/18 (1.85 million), though 24% less than in 2008/09 (2.54 million)¹.  Changes over time may be affected by variation in the way services record the non-contraception related activity included in this measure. 

There were 1.40 million contacts for reasons of contraception, down 3% compared to 2017/18 (1.45 million), and down 25% compared to 2014/15 (1.87 million). This data is not available prior to 2014/15 due to differences in how the data was collected.

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^{1. Figures since 2015/16 have included non-face to face contacts (0.6% to 1.5% of total contacts).}

For more data relating to this section:

Reason for contact by females²

85% of all contacts with SRH services were by females.

12% of contacts involved the provision of a new main method of contraception, 17% a change of main method and 44% the maintenance of an existing main method. This is a total of 73% of contacts where a main method was supplied or maintained.

8% involved pre contraception advice, and 6% emergency contraception.

72% involved one or more other types of activity (whether with or without a contraception related service). See table 5 in the Excel data tables for a full breakdown of this activity. 

Reason for contact by males²

15% of all contacts with SRH services were by males.

15% of contacts involved the supply/maintenance of a main method, and 5% pre-contraception advice.

93% involved other activities (whether with or without a contraception related service).

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^{2. A single contact may involve more than one reason.}      

^{3. Contacts where one or more forms of emergency contraception were provided.}   

^{4. Contacts involving one or more other activities.}

For more data relating to this section:

This section only includes people who used a service for reasons of contraception, including for emergency contraception and contraception related advice. The equivalent data for all persons, which includes those who only used a service for non-contraception related activity, is shown in tables 2a and 16.  

Likelihood of contact by age and gender

6% of females between the ages of 13 and 54 had at least one contact with an SRH service for reasons of contraception. For males in the same age group, it was less than 1% of the resident population.

The likelihood of a female contacting a service varies between ages.

Females aged 18 to 24 were most likely to use a service for contraception, with 14% having at least one contact.

4% of females aged 15 and 1% of females aged 13 to 14 had at least one contact. These equates to 2% of females aged 13 to 15.

Likelihood of contacts by females (aged 13 to 54), by Local Authority (LA) of residence

The likelihood of a female using an SRH service for reasons of contraception will be influenced by the availability of such services in their area of residence.

The proportion of the female population (aged 13 to 54) that used a service for reasons of contraception, was highest in St. Helens (17%), Knowsley (15%) and Sefton (15%).

Across LA's up to 45% of 18-19 year olds used a service for reasons of contraception (St.Helens), but was less than 5% in others (Darlington, County Durham, and Bath & North East Somerset).

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For more data relating to this section: