The Bedford Borough Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) is a local assessment of current and future health and social care needs.

As a council, we have a duty to improve the health of our population.

To help with this, we use data and information from a range of sources, including hospitals, to understand more about the nature and causes of disease and ill-health in the area.

The JSNA is an essential tool used by the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Board uses is to assess the needs of  the local population and sets out how these needs will be addressed.

The JSNA is a living document. It is published in its entirety with a number of chapters, each dealing with a different topic across the life course. The chapters are updated regularly, depending on when new information becomes available.

JSNA annual summary 2019 (PDF) aims to distil the key issues from the JSNA and present the headline priorities. Wherever a phrase appears in bold, the dedicated chapter can be found on the website with all the relevant statistics, evidence and the detailed recommendations listed in full.