Young people’s use of sexual health clinics ‘significantly higher’ in Hackney

Homerton Hospital. Photograph: courtesy the Homerton

The rate of young people in Hackney visiting sexual health clinics remains stubbornly high compared to neighbouring boroughs, the latest data reveals.

A public health report presented to a Town Hall committee on Monday showed the number of under-24s accessing sexual and reproductive health services in City and Hackney was “significantly higher”.

The majority of interventions between May 2023 and December 2024 were related to sexually transmitted infections (STIs), the study revealed.

The data compared Hackney’s rates to those in Tower Hamlets, Newham, Waltham Forest, but not the rest of the capital.

It also found a spike in interventions related to sexual health in January 2024, following the closure of City and Hackney’s information service, CHYPS Plus, in late 2023.

The report noted that since the closure, online testing for STIs had steadily declined, but this trend had begun several months before the programme ended.

Most tests ordered online were by young people aged between 20 and 24.

Cllr Margaret Gordon, vice chair of the children and young person’s scrutiny committee, said the panel had in the past received a “patchy picture about the quality and seriousness” of relationship and sex education in schools.

The committee also heard that, pre-pandemic, the intervention sessions run by Young Hackney on STIs and contraception were the most sought-after sessions.

However, this demand changed after the Child Q strip-searching scandal and the murder of Sarah Everard during the pandemic.

Although the report found that clinic-based interventions around sexual health had not returned to pre-pandemic levels, the analysis suggested that this was likely due “at least in part” to a shift toward using the online service, Sexual Health London.

The local report comes after the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) released its most recent findings on STIs in the borough in February.

It found that overall, the number of new infections diagnosed among all Hackney residents in 2023 was 7,693.

The rate was 2,942 per 100,000 residents, exceeding the national average of 704.

Hackney’s nearest neighbouring boroughs had a rate of 2,125 per 100,000.

In 2015, Hackney was reported to have the highest rate of chlamydia in the country.