Run by the local women's centre Turning Point, it aims to raise awareness of teenage pregnancy among young people on the estate.Thanks to New Deal for Communities funding of £44,000 a year, the project can afford to employ a project worker, a consultant, and 10 "peer educators". The latter ­ paid £15 a week so still eligible for benefits ­ are all teenage mothers.After thorough training, the women visit local schools and deliver presentations to 12- to 16-year-old girls and boys. Topics include the reality of parenting and advice on sexual relationships, including using contraception and resisting pressure to have sex.Project worker Ruth Epstein stresses that the project doesn't present teenage pregnancy in a wholly negative light. "Being a teenage mother suits some women and we make sure we provide positive images. We educate people to make informed choices."The project only started in August 2000 so it's early days to gauge whether pregnancy rates are down but anecdotal evidence indicates this is the case. Just as importantly, the project has boosted both the self-esteem and job prospects of Natasha and her fellow educators. "When all my children are in school, I'd still like to be a chef," Natasha says, confident that, at just 26, time is on her side.

And compared to women in their thirties torn between high-flying careers and having a baby, maybe her choice wasn't so misguided after all.. Historically, governments have not provided clear leadership in tackling the problems of poor neighbourhoods. Indeed, when departments, agencies and organisations involved in regeneration are not discouraged from working at cross purposes on problems that require a joined-up response, there's little hope of positive results in the neighbourhoods themselves."Despite all the money, people and initiatives that operate in deprived areas, they have often worked repetitively or even competitively – and what's more, there has never been anyone to take overall responsibility for tackling their problems," explains Sarah Clifford, the Head of Communications at the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU).Martin Gawith of the Greater Nottingham Partnership knows this all too well. "Back in the early Nineties, we realised that the successful regeneration of Nottingham depended on better connection of organisations and agencies. So we arranged it ourselves, joining public sector organisations with the private and voluntary sectors and communities to take simple, immediate, multi-agency action on issues that affected our communities. Joining up teenage mothers with further education colleges, for example. Yes, Nottingham is still deprived, but we're getting there."The problem is, of course, that not all areas have taken the initiative that Nottingham has, and even those that have done get little, if any, guidance.

The good news, assures the Government, is that joined-up thinking is the cornerstone of its commitment to its Neighbourhood Renewal action plan."Strange as it may seem, it has been no one's job at local level to pull together all the different agencies with an impact on deprived neighbourhoods," says Nathalie Hadjifotiou of Southwark Council. "That's where Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) come into the picture."LSPs, she explains, are single bodies set up last year by the Government, which bring together the different parts of the public sector, as well as private, voluntary and community sectors, so that different initiatives and services support rather than contradict each other. This is a different approach from what has gone before, in keeping with the Government's attempts to cut out bureaucracy and join up its responses at the national and local level. It's also an approach that has local people at its heart, explicitly involving communities in drawing up the local neighbourhood renewal strategy and listening to their concerns.The job of LSPs is to identify which neighbourhoods should be prioritised, find the root causes of decline, develop ideas on how organisations and individuals can improve things, and implement agreed actions. Through LSPs, partners – such as the local education authority, health authorities and the police – might find ways to be more responsive to what communities really want, as well as rationalising activity to cut down on bureaucracy and waste. LSPs will also set local targets for improving outcomes.Southwark LSP has 26 members – six residents, five voluntary organisations, Christian and Muslim faith representatives, two business representatives and 11 statutory agencies. Ms Hadjifotiou explains, "In our LSP, there's been a major focus on youth crime because it's such a big problem here, and the new joined-up thinking is already achieving results.

Police officers are now based in schools and there are programmes to support young victims of crime, through mobile police stations."Similarly, the police and community health service have joined up to try out a home-visiting service for the vulnerable elderly. "Instead of someone going in to talk about crime prevention in the home and then someone else going in to talk about accidents, we're now just sending one person in, freeing up resources for other initiatives."Because LSPs need to complement their strategic activity with a focus at neighbourhood level, Neighbourhood Management schemes have also been set up. "For now, there are 20 pathfinder schemes across the country," explains Ms Clifford. "They work by placing a single person, team or organisation in charge of regeneration in that neighbourhood – someone who local people can turn to if they face a problem.