INFORMATION RESOURCES ON JOINT STRATEGIC NEEDS ASSESSMENT
< Introduction | Regional context >
National documents and links
Department of Health JSNA Website
The Department of Health has produced a website dedicated to JSNA. The website offers background information on JSNA and holds related information, documents, tool, resources and links. Some of the resources – such as the core dataset – are described elsewhere on this page.
Commissioning Framework for Health and Wellbeing
This is a framework aimed at commissioners and providers of services in health, social care and local authorities.
It has been designed to enable commissioners to achieve:
- a shift towards services that are personal, sensitive to individual need and that maintain independence and dignity
- a strategic reorientation towards promoting health and well-being, investing now to reduce future ill health costs
- a stronger focus on commissioning the services and interventions that will achieve better health, across health and local government, with everyone working together to promote inclusion and tackle health inequalities.
Department of Health JSNA guidance (December 2007)
This guidance, which complements the statutory guidance Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities, provides tools for local partners undertaking JSNA. It describes the stages of the process, including stakeholder involvement, engaging with communities and recommendations on timing and linking with other strategic plans. It also contains a core dataset, and guidance on using JSNA to inform local commissioning, publishing and feedback.
Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) Resource Pack
In support of the JSNA, APHO was been commissioned by the Department of Health to produce a resource pack containing useful information about the data and information needs of JSNA. The end result is five documents, covering different JSNA related topics.
- JSNA Core Dataset: a list of indicators which will be useful to the JSNA. The indicators are divided into five domains; Demography, Social and Environmental Context, Lifestyle/Risk Factors, Burden of ill-health, and Services. Within these domains the indicators are further categorised into sub-domains. Some of the indicators refer to specific (but broad) age groups; ‘Children and Young People’ and ‘Older People’. Key information is given for each indicator. It is assumed that projections will be available for many of the indicators; wherever possible, data sources for the indicators and any projections are provided.
- Guidance on statistical validity: presents an overview of some statistical issues – including common problems and potential solutions – that may be of relevance to those handling data during JSNA-related analysis. Some of the topics covered include; different methods of comparison, statistical significance, confidence intervals, statistical problems with small numbers.
- Projection methods for use in JSNA: an important aspect of JSNA is being able to predict future levels of need, but supporting data can be difficult to obtain. Currently available predictions are signposted within this document, and potential methods for obtaining user-generated predictions are described.
- Data sharing for JSNA: it is envisaged that successful JSNAs will involve data sharing amongst many organisations. Guidance is given on how to share data in a legal and effective manner.
- Measuring Health Inequalities: the reduction of inequalities plays an important role in JSNA; this document attempts to better define the notion of ‘inequality’ and offers examples of how to understand different inequalities-based measures.
JSNA. Progress so far
This is a publication from the Improvement and Development Agency's (IDeA) Healthy Communities programme. It highlights the variety of approaches taken throughout the country and provides a prompt to consider where the JSNA as a strategic planning tool should go next. The case studies illustrate the potential value of incorporating the wider determinants of health and involving partners.
Other public health observatory resources
Several of the Public Health Observatories contain information and JSNA guidance, examples of these include:
- South West Public Health Observatory has a very comprehensive JSNA section on its website linking to several resources. e.g. A JSNA Instant Atlas (interactive map) using national data. A wide variety of indicators are included in the broad areas of; social and environmental, mortality and morbidity, life expectancy, children and young people, older people, lifestyle.
- Eastern Region Public Health Observatory hosts a JSNA theme-page that contains signposts to JSNA-related events, documents, data, and similar.
- Yorkshire and Humber PHO contain theme pages specific to commissioning and JSNA
< Introduction | Regional context >