Topic Report: Children and young people 2023
3. Methodology for 0 to 19 Health Needs Assessment
The methodology for undertaking the HNA included a compilation of an epidemiological needs assessment including:
- service user data
- stakeholder consultation involving corporate interviews and stakeholder surveys
- a review of recently published national and local policies pertaining to the HCP and their alignment with the current HCP contract
Epidemiological assessment
The epidemiological assessment included a quantitative analysis of data on demographics, lifestyle and other factors related to the health and wellbeing of CYP (ages 0-25) and data on CYP-related health service activity in Buckinghamshire; providing insight into demographics and health and wellbeing needs while highlighting where possible the inequalities that exist and the wider impacts that COVID-19 has had on this population.
For this assessment, a variety of data sources were used ranging from publicly available and locally collated and analysed data. Where possible data has been provided by the 16 Community Boards (community board area or former district area) within Buckinghamshire.
These were formed in 2020 as a way of bringing the council, groups, organisations, and local people together to address local priorities.
The benchmarks used in this report are England and South-East region. Statistical neighbours have been used where possible. There are a range of statistical neighbour groups for Buckinghamshire dependent on the date reference of the data and the source of the information; these include nearest neighbours as defined by the Children’s Services Statistical Neighbours Benchmarking Tool (CSSNBT) and CIPFA as provided in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) data tools.
There are 2 groupings for CIPFA based on 2018 and 2020 used in this analysis dependant on what was available at the time of writing in April/May 2022.
CIPFA neighbours for Buckinghamshire in 2018 were:
- Gloucestershire
- North Yorkshire
- Somerset
- West Sussex
- Oxfordshire
- Hampshire
- Surrey
- Cambridgeshire
- Worcestershire
- Hertfordshire
- Northamptonshire
- Warwickshire
- Suffolk
- Leicestershire
- Essex
CIPFA neighbours for Buckinghamshire in 2020 were:
- North Somerset
- Herefordshire
- Cheshire East
- Cheshire West and Chester
- Rutland
- Batt
- North East Somerset
- Wiltshire
- Windsor and Maidenhead
- West Berkshire
- Wokingham
- Central Bedfordshire
- South Gloucestershire
- Shropshire
- Solihull
- Bedford
Qualitative needs assessment
A stakeholder consultation was used to understand the health needs and of assets and services currently available in relation to the health of CYP in Buckinghamshire, in order to identify gaps and make suggestions for future development. The stakeholders who were engaged in the consultation included CYP and their parents and carers, key stakeholders from HCP and closely linked services (commissioners and service providers), as well as wider stakeholders, e.g. in education & primary care.
Consultation with CYP and their parents was via an online survey which was designed to seek responses that related to the following characteristics of each aspect of the HCP service (Health Visiting, School Nursing, FNP):
- what they used the service for
- communication
- access (appointments, waiting time)
- what was good about the service
- what could be improved
- effect of, and learning from, COVID-19 pandemic
- were needs met
- overall satisfaction
- other health and wellbeing services for CYP in Buckinghamshire
Consultation with other stakeholders was designed to seek responses related to the following characteristics of the HCP service:
- strengths
- challenges
- risks/ Gaps
- multidisciplinary working
- equity
- effect of, and learning from, COVID-19 pandemic
- strategic priorities
Key stakeholders from the HCP and closely linked services were engaged via semi-structured interviews and the wider stakeholders were engaged via an online survey.