Health information helpful for forums

Information useful for forums working on service design of health services.

There is a lot of useful information about health systems that forums might find helpful. Forums may want to refer to some or all of these as they work on different areas. Forums are not expected to be health experts but some of the information below may be of use when looking at how services are being planned, delivered or reviewed.  

Joint Strategic Needs Assessments – JSNAs

Your local authority must conduct Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNAs) – also known as Health and Wellbeing plan – every few years.  

These assessments analyse the health needs of the local population and guide to health, wellbeing, and social care services commissioning. Data gathered from these needs assessments shape the local area’s health and well-being strategy. JSNAs have a big focus on health inequalities. 

ICBs use the local authority’s JSNAs to plan where they will spend funding to reduce these health inequalities. This means these assessments will influence how ICBs decide which services should be prioritised for improvements. Children and young people with SEND experience many health inequalities so it is vital that every JSNA includes a chapter on Children and young people with SEND. 

Joint Strategic Needs Assessments

“Robust JSNAs are a collaborative, if not co-produced, piece of work, including the perspectives of CYP and parent carers. Working in this way should also provide qualitative data with which quantitative data can be triangulated.”  –
 
 Council for Disabled Children, Delivering Better Outcomes Together

Making use of clinical guidance and standards

Health commissioners must consider clinical guidance, including guidance set by National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) when they commission health services. 

NICE helps practitioners and commissioners get the best care to patients, fast, while ensuring value for the taxpayer.  

They do this by: 

Forums will find it helpful to know what these guidelines say when discussing these services with managers and commissioners. 

Guidelines likely to be of interest to parent carer forums

Health guidance relevant for parent carer forums

Central government and NHS England provide guidance on the implementation of policy in practice. These guides can often provide forums with useful information on what they can expect to be happening locally.  The following guidance may be of interest to forums when working with health services. 

Executive lead roles within integrated care boards statutory guidance.

Working in partnership with people and communities statutory guidance. 

Guidance to deliver improved outcomes in all-age autism assessment pathways -guidance for ICBs.

Working together at scale – guidance on provider collaboratives

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