The voice of Bradford's youth looks set to shape the future of the district's health services.

Bradford Health Authority has agreed to create a youth forum following the launch of the Government's National Plan for the NHS which encourages input from the local community.

The move was inspired by a group of youngsters from Tong School who formed a shadow Community Health Council earlier this year as part of their GNVQ in health and social care.

CHC members were so impressed that they took the sixth formers' report to the health authority last week.

Chief Officer of the CHC Lesley Sterling-Baxter said the idea for the youth forum had been agreed in principle, but that details of its remit and content were yet to be confirmed.

She said: "Many of those planning services tend to be middle-aged as they are often in senior positions. Young people question in a way that older more reserved people don't. They can challenge perspectives and ask very simple questions which others think of as nave."

She added that the health authority board was considering a visit to Tong School to talk to all the pupils about health issues in the district.

The ten teenagers from Tong School chose to tackle the controversial subjects of domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, prostitution and drug abuse and identified gaps in health provision.

Their recommendations included interpreters for Asian women suffering domestic violence, increased publicity of support groups for youngsters lured into prostitution and local advertising of drug projects instead of multi-million pound national campaigns.

The students also advocated that the morning after pill should be available in chemists.

A Bradford Health Authority spokesman said the authority had been very impressed with the work carried out by the Tong School students