Sexual health services for young people

YC (youth centre) Hertfordshire has been working in partnership with Public Health to ensure young people have access to appropriate and timely sexual health services locally.

YC Hertfordshire, Services for Young People at Hertfordshire County Council, is able to offer sexual health support and advice to young people aged 13-19 in Access Points across the county. Young people are able to access free condoms, chlamydia screening and pregnancy testing as well as get advice and guidance on other issues from relationships to employment.

A new text service to support young people with sexual health, relationship and wellbeing advice is now live. Young people aged 13-24 can access this service from their mobile phone wherever they are in the county by texting their sexual health questions to 07860 057369.

Young people will get a response from a trained youth worker within 3 hours (during business hours) or the next working day if outside of these times.

They will be able to get information about how to access the most appropriate service for their needs, which could be a specialist service such as Sexual Health Hertfordshire, or their GP or a local pharmacy.

Young people can also text keywords such as CONDOM, TEST or PREGNANT for an automatic response detailing the nearest free condom distribution site or STI/pregnancy testing service.

The text service is completely confidential and young people do not need to share any details to access it.