Agenda item

5.1

The Board considered a report of the Director of Public Health concerning the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Annual Report 2013-14. The report provided an update on the progress in gathering additional JSNA evidence and identified topics for further analysis in 2014-15. Proposals were also made for the development of indicators for outcome 5 of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, namely that the health and wellbeing system is innovative, affordable and provides good value for money.

Dr Jeremy Wight, the Director of Public Health, informed the Board that the report set out some initial thoughts on developing outcome measures for outcome 5 of the Strategy. The proposals for topics to be considered in more detail in 2014-15 included climate change and adaptation. Topics would be considered in relation to all age groups.

The Board was requested to consider four questions, as follows:

• Is the level of detail in the report sufficient and if not, should it be more or less detailed?
• Are there other aspects of JSNA work that it would be helpful to report on (e.g. JSNA online resource)?
• Is the proposed approach to the development of outcome 5 indicators acceptable?

·         Are there other JSNA topics that should be explored further?

5.2

Members of the Board commented upon the report as follows:-

It was important that health care professionals, when in contact with the public, took such opportunities to educate and inform.  This was a matter that should also be included for health care professionals at undergraduate level.

There were resources to enable such activity and it was important to make every contact with patients and the public count. It was intended to recruit to a post, the responsibilities of which would include promotion of activity with Council staff that were in contact with the public and patients.

The findings relating to the JSNA should be more widely distributed to enable people to provide comments.

It was not intended that the Needs Assessment was a document which simply sat on the shelf. It had been produced in partnership and was a document open to the public. The issue of wider distribution of the JSNA was a matter which needed further consideration.

It might it be possible to use some of the information from the results of the Every Child Matters survey to inform the JSNA. The survey was thought quite powerful as the views from it came directly from children and young people and it could be used as evidence to inform the JSNA.

The CCG used the JSNA to inform and kick-start the planning process and identify priorities. Consideration should be given as to where action should be taken sooner. This had been done to some extent, through the Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which had been agreed and now needed to be implemented. There was also opportunity to take stock and to identify any new matters that need attention.

People with poor mental health might have a 20 year shorter life expectancy than average and people who had learning disabilities also had a shorter life expectancy and had physical health needs. There were actions in the Health and Wellbeing Strategy concerning such inequality and this would also be included in the Inequalities Action Plan, which was to be submitted to the Board later in the Spring.

There was a distinction between the detail in the JSNA and the amount of detail which was considered by this Board. It was a question for the Board as to whether it wished to see more or less detail. Members of the Board indicated that they were content with the amount of detail they received.

In relation to developing indicators for outcome 5 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and the extent to which the system was innovative, if the Board concentrated on the commissioning of new services to improve health and wellbeing, it may overlook other existing innovative investment that was already underway. The Board had to be careful to tell the story on innovation.

It was proposed that a small group should be established to progress the development of indicators.

It was confirmed that children and young people would be included within the other topics identified for further investigation in the JSNA in 2014-15, including epilepsy, end of life care and offender health.

5.3

RESOLVED that the Board:

(1)  Notes the significant progress achieved to date;

(2)  Agrees that a paper outlining the proposed Health Equity programme be presented to a future meeting of the Board;

(3)  Agrees (i) the proposed way forward for developing indicators for outcome 5 of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and (ii) to the establishment of a time-limited working group, including Members of the Board, to further progress the development of indicators;

(4)  Requests a full update on all the outcome indicators when the most up to date data are available (which is likely to be September 2014); and

(5)  Agrees the additional Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) topics to be investigated in 2014-15.

5.4

Reasons for the recommendations

It was important that the Board shaped and agreed the JSNA process and related areas of work as this is the key means by which it obtains evidence to support development and evaluation of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.