Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

What is a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)

The JSNA is an assessment of the current and future health and social care needs of the local community; these are needs that could be met by the local authority, Integrated Care Board (ICB), or NHS England. The Department of Health (DoH) defines a needs assessment as a systematic method for reviewing the health and wellbeing needs of a population, leading to agreed commissioning priorities that will improve health and wellbeing outcomes and reduce inequalities. The DoH published statutory guidance on completing JSNAs and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWS).

Local authorities and Integrated Care Boards (ICB) have equal and joint duties to prepare JSNAs and JHWSs, through the local Health and Wellbeing Board. Local areas are free to undertake JSNAs in a way best suited to their local circumstances. There is no template or format that must be used and no mandatory data set to be included, although they must be fit for purpose. Ultimately, ICB, NHS England and local authorities’ plans for commissioning services will be expected to be informed by the evidence contained within JSNAs and JHWS.

Southampton Health and Wellbeing Strategy (2017-2025) and Health and Wellbeing Strategy Dashboard (used to monitor strategic outcomes) and JSNA summary slide set can be downloaded below and found in the resources section.

• Southampton City Council - Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2017-2025
• Health and Wellbeing Strategy dashboard
• JSNA summary slide set

The Southampton JSNA and Single Needs Assessment (SNA)

In the decade before the SNA, the Southampton JSNA has been a comprehensive online resource that aims to identify the ‘big picture’ for health and wellbeing through analysis of a wide range of data sets and other sources of evidence. However, the JSNA is not the only statutory needs assessment in the city; the Community Safety Strategic Assessment and the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment are also statutory duties for the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and the Health and Wellbeing Board respectively. In addition, there has been an increasing demand for high quality data and intelligence on a range of other topics such as economic development and housing which, although are not statutory duties, consider important drivers (wider determinants) of health and wellbeing in the city.

In 2015, Southampton City Council and partners took the decision to combine these analyses into a more holistic Single Needs Assessment (SNA) for Southampton, rather than consider issues in isolation. This approach has been endorsed by both the Southampton Health and Wellbeing Board and the Southampton Safe City Partnership. The SNA is now hosted on the Southampton Data Observatory website, which is designed to be a ‘one stop shop’ for evidence and intelligence on need in the city. More information on the history of Southampton’s JSNA is available on the history of the JSNA page.

How to use the Southampton Single Needs Assessment (SNA)

The Southampton Single Needs Assessment is structured by topic to help the user find the information they are looking for. Each topic contains a summary of the key needs as well as signposting to more in depth resources in the form of data dashboards and compendiums, presentation slide sets, detailed needs assessments and external sources of information. To begin using the Southampton Single Needs Assessment, navigate to your chosen topic from the Southampton Data Observatory home page, or use the links below. A Southampton JSNA slide set is also available to download which is regularly updated and summarises some of the current needs in the city.

The Southampton Data Observatory currently is structured by key topic:

• Population – births, deaths, ethnicity, language, population change, census
• Health – data on a range of health topics (see below)
• Economy – Southampton’s economy, deprivation, cost of living, housing and homelessness
• Place – ward profiles, locality & GP profiles, maps
• Community Safety – crime, domestic abuse, youth offending, road safety
• Children and Young People (CYP) – education, maternal health, child poverty
• Research – Covid-19 resident surveys, City survey, People’s Panel
• Data and Resources – needs assessments, interactive dashboards, summary slide sets, maps

The Health section covers a range of more in depth topics making up the JSNA:

• JSNA Overview
• Southampton’s population
• Life expectancy and mortality
• Children and young people
• Health behaviours
• Healthy ageing
• Disabilities
• Health conditions
• Mental health
• Communities of interest
• Inequalities and wider determinants
• Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment
• Health data and resources

Maintaining the SNA continues to be a dynamic iterative process rather than a stand-alone product and is updated regularly as new data sets and analysis become available or new priorities identified. In this way, future policies, strategies, commissioning decisions and spending priorities can be based on the latest available data and evidence. The Southampton Data Observatory JSNA content is overseen by the JSNA Steering Group as shown in the diagram. Members of the steering group come from a range a statutory organisations across the city, to ensure the JSNA and analytical work programme are informed by strategic priorities across Southampton.

Assets and Needs using the SHAPE tool

The Southampton JSNA is focused on highlighting health needs, inequalities and challenges in the city to inform strategy, commissioning and service planning / design. However, it is also helpful to understand the assets across the city that may help meet the identified need (asset based approach). The SHAPE tool is an online, interactive, data mapping, analysis and insight tool that supports service planning and estates strategy development. The features and data sets included allow a geographical exploration of both assets and need.

Local infrastructure assets are included such as GP practices, pharmacies and other primary care facilities, schools, railway stations, children’s centres, dentists, opticians, care homes, green space and access points as well as key supermarket sites.

The tool includes environmental data such as flooding risk, nitrogen dioxide levels, sulphur dioxide levels, noise pollution and particulate matter levels. Resident data such as population projections, ethnicity, deprivation, poverty, disease prevalence and 2021 census data is also included to help assess need.

The tool also incorporates travel time analytics including driving routes to nearest sites, travel time by foot, bike, car or public transport and distance and boundary visualisations. For example, this functionality was utilised in the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment to understand travel times for residents to their nearest pharmacy. The tool is helpful to health colleagues as it displays primary care patients, workforce make up, dispensing data, practice information and contracts including CQC information. The features include NHS organisations, boundaries and sites.

The tool is free to use but users need to register.

ONS Health Index

Benchmarking and trend data within the Southampton JSNA comes from a range of different sources. Another way of benchmarking and looking at changes in health over time is through the ONS Health Index. The Index is broken down into 3 main areas: Healthy People, Healthy Lives and Healthy Places, each containing several subdomains. Southampton can be benchmarked against England and itself historically over time. Within the Index, scores of more than 100 indicates better health, whilst scores of less than 100 indicates worse health.

A number of local authorities across our local Integrated Care System (ICS) have used the ONS Health Index to structure their JSNAs and health and wellbeing strategies. It is important to understand Southampton’s Health and Wellbeing using the ONS Health Index measure, so that the ICS can effectively compare and understand results across the whole Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton area.

The ONS Health Index (Southampton) includes a summary slide set and full slide set pack exploring Southampton against the 2020 Health index. The Hampshire JSNA includes Southampton and Portsmouth within their ONS Health Index PowerBI visualisation, it was updated in August 2023 with the recent 2021 ONS Health Index Data for the city. The Southampton Data Observatory ONS Health Index page will reflect the 2021 data later this year. More information is available on the ONS Health Index (Southampton) page.