Agenda item

Ms Asmat Nisa Consultant in Public Health and Assistant Director, Public Health Directorate, NHS Berkshire East stated that the Primary Care Trust and the Council had a statutory duty under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act (2007) to undertake a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA).  Members were reminded that the JSNA was the process that identified current and future health and wellbeing needs in light of existing services and informed future service planning taking into account evidence of effectiveness. The JSNA identified the health and wellbeing needs and inequalities of the local population.

Ms Nisa, presented Scrutiny Panel Members with an overview of the JSNA for 2011.  Members were reminded of the JSNA 2010 findings and informed of the key health issues that had emerged over the past 2 years and areas that remained a concern.  It was noted that one of the priority needs outlined in the 2010 JSNA related to tuberculosis and that a number of measures had been taken to address those concerns. 

The Panel was informed that although the 2011 population figures were due to be published by the Office of National Statistics in 2012, it was evident that the Slough population had increased over the years and was skewed towards a younger population in comparison to other local authorities in the south-east.  Population projections showed that the greatest predicted rise was within the 30-34 year olds and 10-14 year olds.  A contributing factor to the increase in population figures was due to an increase in birth rate within Slough, which was higher than any of its neighbouring local authorities.  It was noted that Slough had the fifth highest fertility rate in the UK and the highest in the south-east.

Ms Nisa outlined the priority needs for Slough for 2011 and noted that key differences from 2010 priorities included areas relating to TB and HIV, mental health, sexual health, looked after children and reducing childhood and adult obesity.

Key findings from the JSNA exercise were highlighted and included:

·  New insights into current and projected needs of vulnerable groups based on the local Government Improvement and Development JSNA data inventory published in August 2011. A key gap in the projected needs of those with physical disability had been identified by commissioners and the new projections will inform future commissioning.

·  Detailed population density maps for planning services have yielded insights into how the provision of age-specific services can be improved

·  An update on population growth with insight into the optimum modelling of future migration to inform the planning of school places and housing

·  An update on changes in prevalence of GP registered patients with long term conditions – mental health, diabetes and coronary heart disease were the ones that were statistically higher and adult obesity

·  Identification of wards with significantly higher rates of emergency admissions.

Members were also informed of areas JSNA products in development which included  a guide to accessing underlying data set and templates with hyperlinks to:

·  Detailed templates and datasets for each theme

·  A summary of the top ten priorities

·  An extract of SHAPE population density information for planning

·  A powerpoint of the key findings for each area

·  Service templates for key social care and health services to aid future commissioning decisions.

Details of the next steps and prioritisation planning were outlined for Members information. It was noted that now that the data had been collated appropriate planning needed to be carried out with regard to services that needed to be provided more effectively and which areas needed to be targeted due to limited resources.

In the ensuing discussion a number of questions were asked.  A Member asked what impact GP triage had had on hospital A&E visits.  Dr Angela Snowling, Co-author of the Slough JSNA 2011 stated that whilst this information was not available at the moment a number of options were presented to individuals in terms of looking at alternative rather than attending A&E.  This included using the NHS telephone line and Walk In Centre.  It was noted that A&E admissions in Slough remained at a significant higher rate than the national average for England and the reasons why would be investigated further at a working group.  A Member queried whether there was any direct correlation between those wards that had a higher rate of hospital admissions and wards within which individuals were not registered with a GP.   Dr Snowling stated that whilst there was a direct impact on individuals not registering with GPs and increase in the number of A&E visits, a New Entrants Service had been developed, informing individuals of where services other than the hospital could be accessed.

In response to how the priorities within the JSNA would be monitored, Ms Nisa stated that a detailed action plan for each area would be produced which would monitor outcomes and services provided.  A partnership approach in dealing with these issues was critical and key performance indicators would measure what had been achieved. 

A Member commented that poverty was the underlying cause of many of the issues and Dr Snowling stated that the issue had been addressed through debt management, training back into work and equipping people with skills and that this had been a very effective service within Slough.

It was noted that the electronic copy of the JSNA would be available in January 2012 on the local authority website. 

Resolved – That the report and update be noted.