Agenda item

This report provides members of the Health and Wellbeing Board with an update on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), including work undertaken in the last year by the York Population Health Hub, planned work for the coming year, and some key changes in the York population. 

The Director of Public Health introduced and presented PowerPoint slides, alongside the Public Health Practitioner, Communities and Neighbourhoods Services.

The report summarised and updated on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, including work undertaken in the last year by the York Population Health Hub, planned work for the coming year, and some key changes in the York population. 

The presentation reminded members of the key role JSNAs play within the work of the board, and outlined the approach being taken in York.

Given the discussion during public participation, it was pointed out that one of the Health Needs Assessments undertaken as part of this work concerned Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment; one of the required statutory assessments for this board.

The Population Health Hub (PHH) was also highlighted because the Director of Public Health felt that it tied into the work undertaken by his team on Health Needs Assessments, but it was also part of a wider partnership with the ICB, the hospital, the police and many other partners around the table. The PHH represented important partnership work, meeting on a regular basis and discussing how data is shared.

The Director of Place commended the PHH as a real asset for York, with analysts coming together to talk about need, which she felt tied it to the neighbourhood principles of the York Health and Care Partnership discussed in item 8. She said that moving to neighbourhood working was extremely positive and enabled multi-agency work.

The board asked whether Public Health team would be able to look at the needs highlighted by the PHH on a neighbourhood basis and use this data.

The Director of Public Health answered with the example of “Proactive Social Prescribing”, a project started a couple of years prior, analysing need of a cohort of patients with respiratory conditions, and sharing data between the ICB, hospital and York CVS. This had received good self-reported outcomes, though not yet formally assessed. He agreed that the neighbourhood model and data sharing was a helpful and positive step forward.

The Director of York CVS added that this project had worked well; those engaged in Proactive Social Prescribing faced many challenges and  might ordinarily have “fallen through the cracks” in the system. Their team needed to be persistent as some appointments were cancelled and some patients did not attend, but this persistence moved patients to a better place where they were happier. She stated that the project did not cost a lot and in fact had saved a lot of money.

The board asked whether there had been any progress with regard to dental health and supervised toothbrushing schemes at schools.

The Director of Public Health responded that he would have to formally report back to the board at a later date on this matter; there was now supervised brushing in six settings and the ICB was funding further expansion of this. Supervised brushing was so well evidenced that data was not routinely collected, but he committed to discussing this with the oral health lead, to produce evidence of impact.