About
West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board
The Health and Wellbeing Board is a forum where key leaders from the health and care system across West Sussex work together to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and reduce health inequalities.
Board membership
Members of the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board include:
- West Sussex County Council
- NHS Crawley CCG
- NHS Coastal West Sussex CCG
- NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG
- Healthwatch
- District and borough council representatives
- Voluntary sector representatives
The Board’s vision and responsibilities
‘West Sussex is a great place in which to grow up, achieve, raise a family and grow old, in strong, safe and sustainable communities – it is a place where improved health and wellbeing is experienced by all our residents, and the health and wellbeing gap between communities is reducing.’
The board is responsible for:
- Assessing the health and wellbeing needs of local residents. This work is known as the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA)
- Developing a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy (JHWS) to meet the health and wellbeing needs identified in the JSNA
- Reducing the gap in health and wellbeing between communities.
- Promoting integration of health and care services
- Reviewing and approving key health and wellbeing plans and strategies such as the Better Care Fund plan, and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) commissioning plans
- Producing and publishing the Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA).
For more information about the Board, please visit the West Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board’s web page.
For more information about the Wellbeing Board’s strategy document, please visit this page.
What is the JSNA?
The purpose of the JSNA is to provide a summary of the current and future health, care and wellbeing needs of the local population. In identifying the changing trends within the local population, the JSNA aims to improve commissioning and, in doing so, reduce health inequalities.
To build this comprehensive picture, the needs and assets of the local population and area are assessed using both national and local data, using a broad range of indicators to monitor outcomes. This information includes:
- demographic profiles of the population
- health-related behaviours, such as smoking, dietary habits, substance misuse
- wider socioeconomic and environmental factors that affect health, such as education, housing, crime, air quality
- accessibility, use and effectiveness of services
- resident and user surveys.
The needs and inequalities identified in the JSNA are used by the Health and Wellbeing Board to inform the JHWS. This strategy outlines how these needs will be met and outlines a framework for the planning, commissioning and provision of services to improve outcomes for residents.
Who produces the West Sussex JSNA?
The Public Health and Social Research Unit (PHSRU) is responsible for the evidence base that underpins strategic decision-making in West Sussex County Council and its partners. We are a multi-disciplinary, highly skilled and experienced research team specialising in health and social research.
In addition to producing the JSNA on behalf of the Health and Wellbeing Board, we lead on other statutory responsibilities, including commissioning West Sussex Healthwatch and ensuring high quality research standards through West Sussex County Council’s Research Governance process.
Our work can be split into three functions:
1. Producing an evidence base
We deliver a work programme agreed by the Health and Wellbeing Board, including specific needs assessments and health equity audits, and undertake evidence reviews and economic evaluations for key public health topics. We create cost-benefit models and provide population and demand forecasting across the health and social care domains.
2. Supporting the West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups and other partners
We maintain and analyse health data (such as births, deaths and child health data, and published data sets from NHS Digital and Public Health England) and maintain this JSNA website as a hub for this data.
We work with the CCGs on primary and secondary care datasets to help understand the population demand for healthcare and public health interventions. We also assist our partners in Districts and external organisations to “join-up” health and social care data, to streamline services.
3. Social research and evaluation
We evaluate and help others in evaluating services across the County Council and provide a quality assurance and research support service. We hold “research surgeries” in venues across West Sussex where frontline practitioners undertaking research can receive advice and guidance from our experienced team.
In addition to independent local research, we also engage with national research and social care programmes.
How is the information structured?
The West Sussex JSNA website acts as a continually updated hub for health and wellbeing data and information on the local population.
Much of the West Sussex JSNA data has been sorted into a “Lifecourse Approach” following three major themes:
Each of these sections provides reports, statistics and analyses on key indicators and issues in these broad groups. For example, data relating to the National Child Measurement Programme can be found in the Starting Well section.
Core Datasets
Data on population demographics, including life expectancy, mortality and deprivation figures, is collected in the ‘Core’ section.
This section also houses interactive maps and tools for further data exploration, developed by the research team.
Reports
Our published work, ranging from statutory reports, such as the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report and the JSNA, to briefing notes to formal comprehensive needs assessments, is housed in the ‘Reports’ section.
CCGs
Annual population profiles for each of the three Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in West Sussex are housed in this section.
Most documents can be found in multiple locations on the website, due to the overlapping and interlinked nature of public health. However, certain sections act as comprehensive stores for specific types of documents. All the needs assessments, for example, are collected in the Subject Specific Needs Assessment page within the Reports section.
Contacting the unit
Visit our contact page to get in touch with us.