Agenda item

Purpose: To approve the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment for West Berkshire.

Lesley Wyman introduced her report to the Board, which gave an overview of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), which should be used to agree priorities for Health and Wellbeing and inform the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Lesley Wyman reported that the JSNA was now on the Council’s website and suggested that all members of the Board take the time to have a look at it (www.westberks.gov.uk/JSNA).  The aim of the JSNA was to provide analysis of data to show the health status of different groups; identify health inequalities; highlight unmet needs; indicate recommendations and act as a useful tool for commissioning.

The process for pulling the JSNA together this time around differed to other years as Public Health now sat within the Local Authority. This made it easier to obtain input from services from across the Council for each of the sections.

The JSNA was published as a series of PDFs however, would soon become a fully interactive tool as West Berkshire Council’s website was currently being redesigned and would go live in May 2014. This would make the JSNA much easier to navigate.

The JSNA was structured around the chapters:

• Starting well
• Developing well
• Living well
• Ageing well
• Wider determinants and vulnerable groups
• Demography

Lesley Wyman highlighted that as the new JSNA was web based it could be continuously updated.

Adrian Barker reminded members of the Board that producing a JSNA was a statutory duty. He emphasised the importance of Healthwatch being involved throughout the phased development process. Adrian Barker referred to an item being discussed later on the agenda regarding the management of Charters and addressing the needs of vulnerable groups and suggested that this could be tied in with the JSNA process.

Councillor Marcus Franks questioned when health would be mapped against areas of deprivation and Lesley Wyman confirmed that this was one of the next phases.

RESOLVED that the ward profiles be brought back to a future meeting of the Health and Wellbeing Board along with the assets serving those wards.

Graham Pask reported that Lesley Wyman had given a slightly different version of her presentation to the Local Strategic Partnership and had included ward profile information. It had been clear from the presentation that there were isolated pockets of deprivation, which needed addressing.

Lise Llewellyn reported that the next steps were to map how resources were spent across the direct. This information would be brought back to the Board however, would take time to compile and therefore timescales needed to be realistic. Regarding asset mapping, discussions would be required at a community level. It was also important to ensure that valuable work around parish planning was not duplicated.

Rachael Wardell supported the points made by Lise Llewellyn and referred to a programme she was aware of called ’Community Signature’, which was a way of supporting community assets. Rachael Wardell saw the work as an opportunity for collaborative working and felt that discussions were needed with Public Health and the CCGs.

Leila Ferguson urged that the voluntary sector be involved throughout the process, particularly in asset mapping as this would highlight some of the smaller organisations working within communities.

RESOLVED that the Health and Wellbeing Board noted the JSNA report.