Issue - meetings

To consider a report on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

The Committee considered a report on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).  This was a process that identified the current and future health and wellbeing needs of a local population, informed the priorities and targets and lead to agreed commissioning priorities that would improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities.

The JSNA was a web based tool, hosted on the Council website, which enabled regular updates to be made.  There were various sections including demography, older people and services, with each section having various chapters.  The Steering Group was jointly chaired by the Director of Public Health and the Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing and reported progress to the Local Strategic Partnerships on a six monthly basis.

A peer review had been undertaken to investigate how the Steering Group could establish more effective ways of monitoring the use of the JSNA and its impact on the ways in which services were planned and commissioned.  The key areas for improvement included ensuring awareness and use by commissioning and middle managers and therefore influencing services and plans, more engagement with wider council departments, NHS providers and voluntary and community organisations, more use of information from the local authority rather than just from the health service and ensuring the JSNA informed a wide range of commissioning decisions.

RESOLVED:  That the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment be noted.