The report supports the Health and Wellbeing Board in understanding their statutory obligations around Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. In doing so to discuss the benefits, challenges and methodological considerations of needs assessments and to highlight existing and ongoing needs assessments and elicit feedback from the Health and Wellbeing Board around potential future priority topics.

The Board considered a report submitted by Helen Gollins, Director of Public Health, and Kate McAllistair, Principal Public Health Intelligence Analyst, regarding the Health and Wellbeing Board’s role in understanding and responding to our population’s needs regarding Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

The report set out each of the following (detail on pages 39 to 49) –

·       Assessing and Understanding our population needs.

·       A Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JNSA) is a Statutory requirement that local authorities must meet.

·       Definition of a JNSA.

·       The need for a JSNA.

·       How a Needs Assessment is carried out (further detail will be brought to a future Health and Wellbeing Board meeting).

·       Categorising the population into the levels of need.

·       How the population is identified.

·       Considerations when carrying out a Needs Assessment.

·       Opportunities and Benefits.

·       Challenges.

·       Existing / Forthcoming Needs Assessments in Public Health 2024-25

In terms of Forward Planning the aim is to develop a work plan for Needs Assessment activity for the next 12 months, with quarterly progress reviews.

Richard Sterling, Managing Director of Trafford LCO, was of the view that the neighbourhood networks would be a good place to take information from and to cross check that with what the community sector is saying which will show the areas that need help in terms of the Plan.

Nathan Atkinson, Corporate Director of Adults and Wellbeing, echoed the points made by Richard Sterling and drew attention to the various types of neighbourhoods within neighbourhoods and recognising inequalities and taking on board that communities have changed, and that Trafford is more diverse than it has ever been in terms of communities.

Sara Todd, Place Based Lead, Trafford, reinforced the previous points made that they now have some fantastic data place wise in terms of communities identities for example ethnic diversity and disabilities.

In response to a question around population needs unmet such as long term needs such chronic fatigue form covid, in other words invisible groups so how do we find out data about these groups, Helen Gollins advised that we would start by looking at national produced evidence at what we would expect to see in the population and taking account of organisations who support people in the communities and this data would support the needs assessment.

Thomas Maloney echoed the previous points raised and emphasised that the organisations and data resources that are available are phenomenal. It is about having the staff to use those resources to be fundamental to help strengthen and update our needs assessments.

Richard Sterling drew attention to the challenge for our partner organisations as to how we put this into our organisational plans and it would be a challenge for the Board.

RESOLVED: That

(i)       the report be noted; and

(ii)       the methods of travel in terms of progressing Needs Assessments for the population of Trafford as set out in the report and presentation together the points put forward by Board Members be endorsed.

Note: The Chair made reference to the fact that this would be George Devlin’s last Health and Wellbeing Board meeting and thanked him for all his work.