Blimey. Gordon Brown, talking about the number of "children having children" just said: "It cannot be right for a girl of 16 to get pregnant, get given keys to a council flat and left on her own." From now on all 16 and 17 year old mums will be "placed in a network of supervised homes".

 The wording of that made my jaw drop slightly. It sounds like the old days when teenage mums were bundled into homes. But is it actually a good thing, that there will be parenting help on hand and also a network of peers for support? What do you people think?

think it's best to wait for the detail on that one! I'd agree in principle at providing more support for young mums though.

It's an interesting concept and you can see the PM's thinking behind the plan: the young mums can share their experiences and receive specialist support. But does it also leave the young mums open to insult from local residents when the locations of these homes are revealed?   

 interesting to see how it won't become the classic "get pregnant to get a house" thing too......

Out of interest, who thought it would be a good idea to play music after GB's speech that has the line: "Who do you think you are? This time you've gone too far"

I can't believe this means all 16-17 year olds. What about those who still live at home with supportive parents? The wording was a bit clumsy though. Rather than homes, he might have called them young parent guidance centres... actually that sounds worse!

It has to be a useful option though. And that's all it can be - there were 42,900 conceptions to under 18s according to the last figures. That's a lot of YPGCs.

 Yeah, it's just those who wouldhave got a council flat I think

Hmm, provided it doesn't become some kind of young Mum's ghetto I think it could work.

My wife and I felt very out of our depth with our first baby. We had no idea what we were doing! I can't imagine what it is like for your average 16 year old, especially one without sympathetic parents. So if this is really about support then yes, it must be a good thing!

Plus - whether we like it or not - the daily mail headlines about having children for housing benefit does have some basis in reality. I know a young lady who accidentally got preganant, was given a house, and suddenly a fe of her friends 'accidentally' got pregnant too!

No question at all that it's a reality - I knew girls with that view when I was at school and I've worked with teenage girls with the same ideas in recent years, including some where it's been the same through generations - very young grandmums!

I do remember the 'what do I do now?' stage when our first child was born. Seems funny now, wasn't then!

I think we are living in very dangerous times where people assume the state has responsibility for everything and so the population at large can just shrug and say 'not my problem mate'. The best support for a teenage mother is that which would come from living in a community, where she would have contact and advice from people of all ages and backgrounds as well as being able to observe 'normal' families and how they 'manage' their lives. If you keep these girls together with their peers, negative behaviour patterns will run rife and no amount of state provided 'help' will ever be adequate. Our society places no value on community or family life and this is the route of it's problem. This is yet another idea to erode those things further and it is criminal that the money it would cost could be better spent. The whole thing sounds like a sick kind of baby factory to me and reminds me of the poor women who started the trend of giving birth in hospital on the promise that the hospital would provide for the child. What they didn't count on was that the doctors who delivered their babies were also dissecting corpses and not washing their hands, hence the high mortailty rate of mothers and their babies.

This is really about control and controlled people give up bothering to think for themselves so they need more controlling........

Louisa - While I think the 'baby factory' analogy may be a little alarmist, I take your point and agree.

We do already assume the government should take over the role of the community in many ways. I;ve suffered abuse while litter picking with a group of young people because 'that's the councils job' and we were doing it for them. We live in strange times!

But communities need a common purpose, a shared identity and places to meet so relationships can develop. Sadly this isn't the case. After the decline of church attendance it seems to have been successive governments' aim to back the school centre of the community - yet this isn't really happening either!

In my experience, if we want community back, the best thing to do is model it and hope others catch on. 

But until this happens we need government intervention to protect the most vulnerable, including young Mums.

(Side note: lets imagine the unusual situation where a young Mum is unfit to look after her child, so the father does it. Would he be welcome in this accomodation?)

It's difficult to say until some actual detail is made available and that's likely to be difficult without knowing who will be in Government. Quite often grand sounding schemes like a "new national centre" that you imagine to be an impressive new facility actually turn out just to be a department somewhere so it's quite possible there won't ever be the kind of purpose built young mum facilities most people are envisaging and the reality will just be more supervision (or "support") by agencies.

@Louise I agree there's a huge issue with people not taking personal responsibility and certainly Government doesn't help towards this. One of the things I hate most of all is people who blame all their problems on the Government but fail to recognise any way they can take responsibility for changing things themselves.

However it's a fair argument that 16/17 year old girls with a child and living independently are going to have a much more difficult time being able to take care of themselves and if you agree that's not the best start for a child there's some sense in exploring ways to give them better support. Whether this is it remains to be seen....

Detail that is starting to come through suggests that as you say Mas it is not as grand as it sounds. There still seems to be confusion, but it sounds like the young parents announcment just amounts to extra places in already existing foyers ( I mean already existing as a concept), and that ALL 16 and 17-year-olds (who are eligible) who apply for social housing will be offered a place in one of the foyers.

 Speaking from someone that was a young mum in 1982 i would have welcomed extra help in the care of my baby,but went through the struggle of going it alone and finding my own way to cope.Now after gaining many College certficates in child care and young people and many years of experience of working with children and young mums.

These houses for young mums already exist,so Gordon Brown is out of touch with what is actually going on out in the real world!

The mums to be and mums are placed in a house where they are given a room to care for their baby.They are monitored and cared for very well.The mums are given the best start in the knowledge and understanding of how to care for their baby.

These young mums come to a work shop where i work in the creche and tutor the Art and craft sessions,teaching mums how to make a baby bag, they are also given the opportunity to do child care courses,this gives the mums a better knowledge and understanding about the necessary requirements to bring up their child,these include safety around the home,feeding your baby the right foods,health care.All very important subjects for the well being of their child.The young mums also have an opportunity to go on to do language and literacy courses,Art and craft sessions,food and hygiene, All coming away with Certificates to have when they feel they wish to enroll on for further education at a college[which most mums do].

From my experience with working with these young mums,they are very good mothers,they clearly show that they love their children very much and keep the child very clean and well cared for.

I do get a sick and tired of hearing about young mums being a target for what the government can and will do for them,esp if it is already in place. Gordon Brown needs to tackle the parents that abuse their children that come from a wealthy background and parents that are married,sort them out and give them better guidance on how to bring up their children better.