Agenda item

[To consider an update on the development of the Joint strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) 2016]

        [Ros Jervis]

The Strategic Director – People reported that Strategic Joint Needs Assessments (JSNA’s) had now been in existence for eight / nine years and that the aim with the refreshed JSNA for Wolverhampton was for it to be used pro-actively by Commissioners in the health and social care economy as an easily accessible point of reference available as an e.document. She suggested that there was a need for the document to include information regarding cultural and ethnicity issues together with details of sensory impairments both in terms of current and future trends. She thanked all those individuals and organisations who had been involved in the production of the refreshed document.

The Service Director – Public Health and Wellbeing presented a report which provided the Board with an update on the progress of the development of the JSNA. She commented that revising a comprehensive document such as the JSNA was a major piece of work and that every effort had been made to highlight gaps in the current document. She referred to Appendix 2 to the report and the following seven chapters. She explained that there was a need for the issue of “safeguarding” to be embedded in the refreshed JSNA and also for the topics in the various chapters to be covered fully. Inequalities needed to be readily acknowledged to enable them to be addressed and for commissioning processes to reflect the information within the JSNA.

Glenda Augustine, Advanced Health Improvement Specialist: Needs Assessment gave a PowerPoint presentation on the contents of Chapter 2 of the JSNA – Life Expectancy and invited comments on the visual contents of the document. She advised that the intention was for the JSNA to be the “go to” document i.e. the first point of reference for all health and social care professionals.

The Chair apologised for the small font in the document. The Strategic Director – People also suggested that blocks of text should be avoided and that there was a need for careful reflection on the content and order.

Donald McIntosh advised that he was happy with the process which had been used to update the document and suggested that it could benefit from the use of case studies or patient stories as examples of the patients journey, which could include examples of referral patterns. The Service Director – Public Health and Wellbeing commented that the term “Patient Voice” be amended to “Resident Voice”.

Alan Coe referred to Section 5.1 of the document and on the need for the same terminology to be used in Section 6 for the sake of consistency. With reference to Section 6.7 he commented that the term “Patient voice” be amended to “Citizen’s voice”.

Helen Child referred to Chapter 1 insofar as it referred to “Indebtedness in the City” and commented that reference needed to be made to the use of food banks and soup kitchens. With regard to Chapter 6.2.3 “Social isolation – Adult social care users and carers” she opined that as written the text referred only to service users and needed to be expanded in the broadest sense.

The Strategic Director – People was of the opinion that greater reference needed to be made to the University of Wolverhampton within the document given that many local authorities did not have such a resource to draw upon. She cited the assistance provided by the University on topics such as dementia, children and young people and connections with schools, inequalities, social wellbeing and obesity. She also opined that the section addressing “migration / immigration” should be expanded.

The Chair invited the Board to consider whether the membership of the JSNA Steering Group was adequate. It was generally felt that the University of Wolverhampton and the Third Sector Partnership should be invited to participate in the work of the Steering Group. Alan Coe advised that Stephen Dodd, as the Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council would also represent the Safeguarding Boards but suggested that a representative from the Regulatory Services of the Council should be included. The Strategic Director – People counselled caution on expanding the membership too widely especially as a lot of contributions were made to members of the Group from non-members. Donald McIntosh invited the Board to consider including a representative from the Inter Faith Group to join the Steering Group. The Advanced Health Improvement Specialist: Needs Assessment reminded the Board that a number of Task and Finish Groups would also be appointed to work on specific areas of the document.

Resolved:

That subject to the above points the progress and initial outputs of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) be approved.