GIRLS at the North Oxfordshire Academy and Banbury School could be given access to the morning-after pill by text message it has emerged.

Using the powers of the Freedom of Information Act the Banbury Cake can today reveal the town’s two secondary schools being considered for the scheme after County Hall refused to name the six schools involved in the proposals.

The other four schools are in Oxford.

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust and Oxfordshire County Council are considering allowing girls as young as 11 to text requests for the pill after a jump of almost ten per cent in the number of girls aged 18 and under getting pregnant.

The number went up from 320 in 2006 to 350 in 2007.

A confidential inquiry held last July pinpointed Oxford and Banbury as teen pregnancy “hotspots” with figures from the PCT showing 53 per cent of the county’s teen conceptions occurred there.

The PCT wants to introduce the text service by July so vulnerable young people can access emergency contraception and relationship advice during the school holidays.

Talks about the service have yet to take place with governors and headmasters however the PCT has said that because the service will be provided outside school hours the plans fall outside the governance of the schools.

Ultimately it will be the PCT who decides which schools take part in the plans.

In a joint statement Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire PCT said: “The six schools were chosen because they sit in wards that have been shown to have persistently high teenage conception rates.

“It is not that the schools involved have high conception rates.

“This is not about giving out contraceptives in schools, it is about providing access to advice on a wide range of health issues from a school health nurse outside the school setting, to support vulnerable young people who may need help outside of school hours.

“The schools are aware that there has been additional funding committed to increase school health nursing services for their school.

“The plans for maintaining the service outside term time and the school setting are still in the early stages and discussions will be taking place with a wide range of people including the schools.

“However, these plans are about giving young people access to a school health nurse outside the school and therefore fall outside the governance of schools.”

Over the past seven years, a total of 1,130 morning-after pills have been given to teenagers at the county’s 14 Bodyzone clinics – confidential drop-in centres run by the PCT.

However Oxfordshire PCT has said child protection staff would become involved if any child aged between 11 and 13 asked for contraception.

North Oxfordshire Academy did not want to comment and Banbury School was unavailable for comment.