About the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment

JSNAs were introduced by the Department of Health in April 2008 to strengthen joint working between the NHS (National Health Service) and local authorities.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 awarded the responsibility for the JSNA and developing a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy to Health and Wellbeing Boards, with the purpose of reducing inequalities and improving the health and wellbeing of the whole community.

The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA for short) is a continuous process to assess the current and future health, care and wellbeing needs of the local community to inform local decision making, using a variety of data sources.

These new pages will provide access to the most recent content for the JSNA. The previous JSNA website, including archive content, is still available to view at What is the JSNA (healthandwellbeingbucks.org).

New content will be added on an ongoing basis throughout each year. The JSNA Directory can also be used to identify the range of content by topic.

The JSNA:

• characterises the health and wellbeing status of the local population
• identifies inequalities
• illustrates trends
• describes local community views
• highlights the key findings

There are no set templates for JSNAs, which is why they will look different across different areas.

They use a range of quantitative and qualitative data and evidence across a wide array of sources and tools.

The JSNA underpins the health and wellbeing strategy and will provide information on topics under the priority areas of:

• Start well
• Live well
• Age well

It also provides information on the population of Buckinghamshire and wider determinants of health. Wider determinants include a range of social, economic, and environmental factors.

A JSNA is not one report, it includes a range of resources including:

• reports which look at specific topics providing recommendations and considerations for local commissioners
• summary reports on topics providing a snapshot for Buckinghamshire
• data profiles and interactive tools to enable the user to explore the data in more detail