Issue - meetings

5.1.        The Board considered a report on the 2018/19 Joint Strategic Needs and Assets Assessment Annual Report (JSNAA).

5.2.        The Board asked whether best use was being made of electronic communications, such as email alerts, to reach people in rural areas of East Sussex and whether parish council clerks mailing lists could be used to spread information.

5.3.        The Director of Public Health welcomed the idea of contacting parish council clerks and explained that the Public Health Team already produces a monthly JSNAA bulletin that goes to a list of subscribers and welcomed the idea of adding parish councils to it.

5.4.        The Board observed it would be helpful to have seen data in the JSNAA report indicating levels of deprivation in the county.

5.5.        The Director of Public Health advised that the previous edition of the Director of Public Health’s Annual Report provided a snapshot of the health of East Sussex residents. It is a user-friendly publication that contains data on how East Sussex performs against ten key determinants of health and wellbeing.

5.6.        The Board asked how health and social care commissioners should use the JSNAA to inform the commissioning of services.

5.7.        The Director of Public Health said that the JSNAA helps to identify issues in East Sussex. Strategies such as the local response to the NHS Long Term Plan would look to address “so what are we going to do about this issue?”. The Director of Adult Social Care and Health agreed that the local NHS Long Term Plan would take account of the JSNAA. This would be a single plan for East Sussex containing all data on needs and available resources and an agreed set of principles and single plan for implementation.

5.8.        The Board asked about what is being done to reduce differences in deprivation and life expectancy and whether a useful surrogate is available to measure improvements in life expectancy, given that it takes many decades for policy changes to be reflected in increased life expectancy.

5.9.        The Director of Public Health said it was his first priority to narrow the gaps between areas of high and low deprivation and life expectancy. He warned, however, that sometimes highlighting the extent of deprivation in certain areas can backfire by creating a stigma about those areas and upsetting residents. Deprived areas should be the focus of plans to improve health and wellbeing, and concerns from their residents should be heard, but commissioners should also be careful how they publicly talk about these places and the people living in them.

5.10.      The Board RESOLVED to note the report