Agenda item

(To receive a report from Tony McGinty (Interim Director of Public Health) which provides information on current activity to ensure the Health and Wellbeing Board is meeting its statutory duties in respect of developing the new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS).  David Stacey (Programme Manager – Strategy and Performance) and Alison Christie (Programme Manager – Health and Wellbeing) will be in attendance for this item)

Consideration was given to a report by Tony McGinty (Interim Director of Public Health) which provided information on current activity to ensure that the Health and Wellbeing Board was meeting its statutory duties in respect of developing the new Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and the Joint Health and Wellbeing Board Strategy (JHWS).

Councillor Mrs S Woolley (Executive Councillor for NHS Liaison and Community Engagement; and Chairman of the Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Board), Alison Christie (Programme Manager – Health and Wellbeing) and David Stacey (Programme Manager – Strategy and Performance) were in attendance for this item.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWB) were required to publish a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) for the local area.  The protocol agreement, signed between the Lincolnshire Health and Wellbeing Board, Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire and Healthwatch Lincolnshire in December 2014, set out the working relationship and respective roles in delivering the shared ambition of improving health and wellbeing in Lincolnshire.

The Health and Wellbeing Board was established in April 2013 as a strategic forum bringing together key leaders from the health, public health and care systems to work together to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Lincolnshire. 

The current format of the JSNA had been in place since 2011 and a programme of review was agreed by the Board in March 2015.  The Committee contributed to the engagement exercise by submitting a formal response in December 2015.

Stakeholder feedback received during the review had highlighted a number of weaknesses in JSNA processes in addition to a wide variation in the levels of awareness and use of the JSNA itself.  A number of respondents reported that they were either unaware of the JSNA or had not used the document and buy-in across partners had also been inconsistent as many perceived this as the responsibility of Public Health with little awareness of the statutory nature of the JSNA.

Based on this feedback, the HWB agreed the review approach based around topic expert panels using the current JSNA as the starting point for the fundamental review which began in April 2016.  Expert Panels, made up of appropriate representatives from the County Council, Clinical Commissioning Groups, health providers, District Councils and voluntary and community sectors had been set up to support Topic Leads to undergo a refresh of each of the topics.  A dedicated Data Analyst had supported the process along with the JSNA Support Officer.

In addition, a multi-agency JSNA Strategic Delivery Group (JSNA SDG) had been established by the HWB to steer the review process and approve changes to the JSNA prior to its publish in Spring 2017.  This included a Peer Review process which would ensure that each topic commentary met the agreed set quality standard before approval was given by the JSNA SDG.

The current Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) was scheduled to end in 2018 and the review of the JSNA was expected to form the basis on which a new JHWS would be developed.  Proposed principles for the development of the next JHWS were presented to the HWB in June 2016 in addition to a draft prioritisation framework.

The following core principles for developing the next JHWS had been agreed by the HWB in June 2016 to assist in achieving the adoption of the prioritisation framework:-

1.    Stakeholder engagement;

2.    A clear and transparent process;

3.    Careful information management;

4.    Decisions based on clear value choices; and

5.    Selection of agreed prioritisation methodology which takes into account the ranking/scoring of a range of factors or 'criteria'.

Final amendments to the prioritisation framework had been made following the meeting of the HWB on 27 September 2016 and had been included at Appendix B to the report for the Committee's consideration.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions, during which the following points were noted:-

·       It was explained that the JSNA was an interactive website and not a specific document and therefore continually updated with new information and data as it became available.  It was also an evidence base to underpin the strategy and commissioning plan;

·       Where reference was made to specific local policies within the topics, the framework had been written in such a way that those policies would be included for consideration as part of that topic;

·       Each topic required completion of a template, which included access to services and rurality of the county.  This would then be evidenced within each topic line;

·       A suggestion was made that one District Councillor on the Health and Wellbeing Board was not sufficient to represent all District Councils in Lincolnshire.  In response it was stated that the Health and Wellbeing Board operated on the basis that the district council representative cascaded relevant information to other district council colleagues;

·       Concern was noted that the JSNA contained a lot of "jargon" and was not user friendly for the general public or Councillors representing residents.  Work was ongoing to develop a more user friendly document and to include more infographics;

·       The Committee was reminded that the Health & Wellbeing Board was a Committee of Lincolnshire County Council and was held in public and relevant paperwork made available;

·       The Chairman requested that the sentence on page 18 of the agenda pack be explained – "The framework itself performed in a fairly consistent way following sensitivity analysis and so is judged to be fit for purpose from this perspective."   It was clarified that this sentence referred to a piece of analysis done on the framework where the topics were scored independently of each other;

At 10.45am, Councillor T Boston (North Kesteven District Council) joined the meeting.

·       The workshops had received a broad section of representatives from across the districts, both individuals and elected members.  The Committee stressed that the workshops needed more notice to ensure good attendance and felt that this had not been given previously;

·       The Committee accepted the offer to consider the JSNA as a working group and it was suggested that from June 2017 onwards would be the most appropriate time to undertake this.  In the meantime, it was agreed that an update would be presented at the February meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED

1.    That the fundamental review of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment be noted;

2.    That the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy Prioritisation Framework be noted; and

3.    That a further update be presented to the Committee at its meeting in February 2017.