Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
A Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) is the process through which public sector partners identify where best to invest their resources to reduce inequalities and secure the outcomes desired by the public they serve. It also provides the data and insight on which commissioning and delivery of health, wellbeing and social care services should be based.
A JSNA should not be seen as a product but a process informing commissioning - including the Sustainable Community Strategy, Local Area Agreement, A Healthier Bedfordshire (NHS Bedfordshire’s Strategic Plan), Children and Young People’s Plan, Supporting People 5 year plan and the Healthier Communities Plan.
Bedfordshire’s first JSNA was completed in 2008 at a county level and provided a comprehensive source of health and social care data. In April 2009 Central Bedfordshire and Bedford Borough councils were established and a decision was subsequently taken to refresh the JSNA specifically for each unitary authority.
To view the JSNA documents for each local authority, please click on the links at the bottom of the page.
A ‘life course’ approach (tracking childhood through to adulthood) has been used for the JSNA and each chapter looks in detail at the level of need in the population, including projected need; current services in relation to the identified need; and a priority for commissioning and for further needs assessment. User and service provider views have similarly been integrated.
The development of the JSNA has been overseen by a multi-agency executive group and supported by a JSNA Programme Manager and Public Health Manager. In excess of 40 individual authors have contributed to its development.
This JSNA is part of a continual process and will develop overtime, particularly with the proposed changes within ‘Liberating the NHS’.
For further information about the JSNA or to make any comments or suggestions (such as gaps you have identified), please email us.
This email address can also be used to request the JSNA document in a different format.
Bedford Borough JSNA documents
Central Bedfordshire JSNA documents