How Can the Devon Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Help Me?

A JSNA is a piece of research for CCGs (Clinical Commissioning Groups) and LAs (Local Authorities) to help them understand the population profile of their areas.

The idea is that with this understanding CCGs and LAs are able to prepare for current and future service needs. For example, if the number of young children is expected to double in an area, you may want to ensure twice the number of places at Primary School are available.

A JSNA is also often what provides the evidence behind annual Director of Public Health reports published by county or unitary councils.

The Latest JSNA Report for Devon

The latest JSNA report for Devon was published in June 2018 and can be found here. The link also has a summary for each of the key areas of the JSNA:

Population and Demographics

Economy

Community and Environment

Housing

Deprivation

Starting Well, Living Well, and Ageing Well

While these top-level statistics are very useful for getting a feel for the wider picture of Devon, most activities and programmes planned are not Devon-wide. For that, you are likely to need a much more detailed local picture. For example, how are you going to target activities for younger people when the top-level figures only tell you that Devon has an older than average population?

This is where another part of the JSNA comes in handy.

Community Health and Wellbeing Profiles

The JSNA is not just the report from 2018. It also includes Community Health and Wellbeing Profiles. These contain the same population profile the main report shows, but broken down to the area you are interested in.

Say you want to understand how Teignbridge compares to Devon when it comes to age profile. You can look at the Teignbridge profile, as shown in the chart below:

Teignmouth profile chart from Devon JSNA

Overall the JSNA is a very useful tool for those looking to understand the population of Devon better. It contains both a high-level view of the population, as well as more detailed views at almost any level you are interested in.

To find out more, visit the Devon JSNA website.

“JSNA is an ideal tool to use while researching where a project might have the most impact.” Active Devon

Tim Howard  – Data and Insight Officer at Active Devon