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About JSNA

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

We use it to improve the health of the population in Bedford Borough.

To help with this, data and information from a range of sources, including hospitals gives us a better understanding of the nature and causes of disease and ill health in the area.

The data and intelligence within the JSNA informs and develops the locally agreed health and wellbeing priorities within the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2018 - 2023 (PDF).

The JSNA is inclusive of the health and care needs of the whole local population, including:

  • children and young people
  • people in vulnerable circumstances
  • those with complex needs

Who can use the JSNA

The JSNA is a public, published document and is available to anyone who wants to understand the local population and its associated health needs and trends.

There are a number of specific groups who will either need or want to use the JSNA to inform priority setting and strategic commissioning, or to shape the targeting and delivery of front line services in areas of highest population need:

  • Bedford Borough Health and Well Being Board members
  • Members and Parish Councillors
  • NHS 
  • midwives, mental health staff, health visitors, GPs and primary care staff
  • organisations we commission to provide health and social care services
  • strategic planners who want to understand and plan for future demand pressures
  • voluntary and community sector organisations in Bedford Borough
  • senior officers at Bedford Borough Council
  • Commissioners

You can access a range of health and social care topics we've produced, regularly updated when new information, evidence and intelligence becomes available.

Email the jsna@bedford.gov.uk if you have questions or further contributions.

Your involvement

There are different ways to be involved with the JSNA. Email jsna@bedford.gov.uk so you can:

  • make comments about the JSNA
  • request a health related topic to be included in the JSNA
  • direct any questions you have about the JSNA
  • be included on our email alert when new chapters are available

JSNA process and the commissioning cycle

Bedford Borough’s JSNA includes a range of quantitative and qualitative evidence. It looks at specific groups such as those likely to have poor health outcomes, as well as wider issues that affect health, for example, crime, community safety, education, skills and planning.

The information within the JSNA is essential to establish the needs of the whole community, as well as:

  • how needs vary for people at different ages
  • how much harder it is for those in disadvantaged areas
  • vulnerable groups who experience inequalities
  • people who find it difficult to access services
  • the wider social, environmental and economic factors that impact on health and wellbeing, for example, access to green space, air quality, housing, community safety, employment.

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