Our Delivery Partnerships
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Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
What is the North Somerset Joint Strategic Needs Assessment?
It is a single, ongoing process that aims to identify the current and future needs for health and social care services for all people in North Somerset. We are using the best available information and include the views of local people and partner organisations.
It aims to:
- identify the current and future health and wellbeing needs of the local population over both the short term (three to five years) to inform the Local Area Agreement and PCT Strategic Plan, and over the longer term (five to ten years) to inform future planning
- lead to agreed commissioning priorities that will improve health and well being outcomes and reduce health inequalities
- reflect the competencies of a world class commissioner, being underpinned by:
- partnership working, community engagement
- evidence of effectiveness: identifying relevant best practice, innovation and research to inform how needs will best be met
- be continuous
Our first Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) was undertaken in 2008 and takes into account the information on social and health inequalities between areas of North Somerset and supports our aim to identify and reduce health inequalities. The initial Assessment was refreshed in 2009.
Why do we undertake a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment?
We have undertaken many joint needs assessments in the past but this process was formalised when the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act (2007) placed a duty on local authorities and local NHS bodies (also called Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) ) to undertake Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) from 1 April 2008.
In developing the North Somerset JSNA we are not starting 'from scratch'. Joint work on identifying and addressing issues of health and well-being was already firmly established, and played an important role in setting the evidence base for the North Somerset Sustainable Community Strategy, the North Somerset Council Corporate Plan and the NHS North Somerset Strategic Framework. What the North Somerset JSNA does, though, is provide us with a robust and ongoing process to which all local partners are committed, and which we can use to inform our future planning.
Who is involved in the process?
The North Somerset JSNA has been developed in partnership by North Somerset Council and NHS North Somerset.
A working group, chaired by the Director of Public Health, was formed to lead the development of the JSNA. As JSNA delivers its findings it will report not only to the Council and NHS North Somerset, but also into the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), given the key role of JSNA is influencing the setting and refreshing of LAA targets.
How often will the Assessment be updated?
The JSNA is an ongoing and developing process. It is important for us to take stock on a regular basis of the main issues emerging from the available information in order to capture key issues in one place and to ensure they are fed into the planning processes of the Council, NHS North Somerset and other local partners.
To do this, we will undertake a refresh of the JSNA in autumn 2010. The refreshed JSNA report will be a public document, made available through the North Somerset Partnership website.
For more information please contact:
Office of the Director of Public Health, NHS North Somerset
Office of the Director of Adult Social Services and Housing, North Somerset Council
email: jsna@nsomerset-pct.nhs.uk