Report to:                  East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board

Date of meeting:       9 December 2025

By:                              Darrell Gale, Director of Public Health

Title:                           East Sussex Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) Update

Purposes:                  To present to the Health and Wellbeing Board an update on the JSNA for East Sussex.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Board is recommended to approve the JSNA priorities and workplan for 2026.

1. Background

1.1       The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) programme was established in 2007 and reports on the health and wellbeing needs of the people of East Sussex. It brings together detailed information on local health and wellbeing needs to inform decisions about how we design, commission, and deliver services to improve and protect health and reduce health inequalities. The JSNA is an ongoing, iterative process, led by Public Health within the County Council.

1.2       Statutory guidance for Joint Strategic Needs Assessments states that the responsibility for overseeing JSNAs lies with the Health and Wellbeing Board and this has been reiterated in guidance on health and wellbeing boards published in November 2022. In East Sussex, this process has been led by Public Health on behalf of the Health and Wellbeing Board.

1.3       Since January 2012, all JSNA work and resources have been placed on the East Sussex JSNA website. These resources have now been transferred to the East Sussex in Figures (ESiF) website where the JSNA has been integrated into one platform for accessing data and intelligence for East Sussex in one central location.

1.4       JSNA resources include local needs assessments, local briefings on specific topics, direct links to national tools containing local data, Director of Public Health Annual Reports, and signposts to other useful resources.

2. JSNA developments since the last report to HWB

There have been many updates to the JSNA since last December. Here are just a few highlights:

· 2024/25 Annual Report of the Director of Public Health is titled Postcards from the Coast. Coastal Communities in East Sussex, their health, wellbeing, and assets

· Health Inequalities Strategic Summary

· Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment

· Multiple Compound Needs - Needs Assessment

· Sexual Health Rapid Needs Assessment

· Substance misuse assessment of need update

· Alcohol Care Team evaluation

· My Health My School survey results 2023-2024

3. East Sussex in Figures (ESiF).

3.1       The new ESiF website went live on 8 August 2024. This was a joint project undertaken by the Performance, Research and Intelligence team and the Public Health Intelligence team at ESCC. As set out in the report to the HWB last December, the resources from the main JSNA website were transferred to ESiF in 2025 and the pages went live in October 2025.

4. Health and Wellbeing Board workshop sessions

4.1       At the time of preparing this report, there have been three further deep dive sessions in 2025 covering the JSNA priorities of Building Blocks of Good Health, Life course approach, and Reducing health Inequalities. Health and Wellbeing Board briefing notes summarise the data and evidence presented in the sessions and subsequent discussions about approaches to meet the challenges faced by our county.

5. Priorities for the system based on JSNA work to date.

5.1 A summary of the JSNA priorities, which were agreed at the December 2024 Health and Wellbeing Board, is available on the JSNA site. This is an infographic summary of key data pertaining to the five JSNA priorities for East Sussex based on work.

5.2       This year we have included “Healthy Environment” with the Building Blocks of Health priority.

5.3       If the board agree to recommend these priorities for 2026, we will update the JSNA summary on the website with the most recent data available.

Figure: East Sussex JSNA priorities

6. Workplan for 2026

6.1       The governance for the JSNA remains the same as reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board in December 2024. The JSNA working group feeds into the East Sussex Health and Care Intelligence group and receives suggestions from this group in the planning and development of JSNA resources (seen at appendix 1). This will be reviewed during the year if there are changes to the East Sussex Health and Care Partnership and programme governance.

6.2       The proposed workplan below sets out the key pieces of work to be undertaken during 2026. This list is not comprehensive and there will be the need to respond to requests as priorities emerge throughout the year. Where appropriate, the work will consider the whole life course.

Work plan for 2026.

· Needs Assessment on the Mental Health of Older People in East Sussex

· Needs Assessment - Healthy Weight in Secondary Care

· Needs Assessment for Children aged under 5

· Needs Assessment for End of Life care (Sussex-wide)

· Needs Assessment for TB (Sussex-wide)

· Director of Public Health Annual Report 2025/26

· Integrated Community Teams (ICT) – Supporting the data and intelligence needs as ICTs develop

7. Conclusion and Reason for Recommendation

7.1 The Health and Wellbeing Board is recommended to approve the JSNA Priorities and workplan for 2026.

DARRELL GALE

Director of Public Health

Contact officer: Graham Evans, Head of Public Health Intelligence

Email: graham.evans@eastsussex.gov.uk