Agenda item

Allan Wiltshire, Head of Policy Performance and Intelligence (DMBC) gave a presentation to the Board which provided an interim update showcasing the work done to date in terms of developing new products in the light of a revised JSNA policy and next steps.  He shared examples of 2 new publications – the first being an interactive demographics dashboard, which provided data on various themes including population, employment and wellbeing.  The second product was a dashboard providing a suite of information on the JSNA Outcomes.  Both products had been developed with a focus on accessibility and public facing information.

The presentation concluded with a number of ‘asks of the HWB Partnership’.  These comprised:

• Continue to feed into local outcomes developments;
• Contribute to the repository; and
• To focus on the ‘operations’ strand of the JSNA Plan to complement the winter planning and resilience work.

Discussion followed, during which the Board members made various comments/observations on the new interactive dashboards, including:-

• The value of the dashboards as tools in identifying the priorities in the health service in relation to the population health approach and tackling health inequalities.  In addition, the health and care bill currently going through Parliament referenced the JSNA as a tool to be used across the Integrated Care Systems of the future, so the data would also be useful in that regard.

• With regard to the mechanisms for keeping the data up-to-date and showing changes over time, such as the impacts that policies and interventions were having in communities, Allan Wiltshire explained that while some of the outcome data did show trends over a 5 year period, he acknowledged that there was scope for doing more work in the way of tracking in the models.

• It was recognised that this would be a useful tool for the Community and Voluntary Sector in dealing with applications and learning more about the communities they were working with, and a question was asked as to when the dashboards would go live and be available for use.  A Board Member also queried whether issues such as loneliness and social isolation would be tracked alongside the other Wellbeing topics such as fuel poverty and deprivation.  In reply, Allan Wiltshire confirmed that the demographics dashboard was expected to be ready in the next couple of weeks, with the outcomes dashboard following shortly afterwards.  With regard to Wellbeing, Allan explained that National data was being collected in relation to issues such as anxiety, wellbeing and happiness and this would be incorporated within the outcomes for Doncaster enabling these areas to be tracked.

• A Board Member welcomed the new products, but spoke of the importance of not being sucked into the idea that data is the only arbiter of the difference we are making and that, instead, it was important to recognise ‘voice’ as being the day to day arbiter of how well we are doing.  He also stressed that there was a need to ensure that our practices took a heads up approach on this and asked people about the impacts that services were having on their lives, instead of just relying on data tracking.

• It was felt that the new dashboards would be very useful and helpful in terms of strategic planning and the Board fully supported the new products.

• The Chair felt it would be useful to show the years in the data so that people using the dashboards could see how up-to-date the information was.  She then spoke of the data relating to communities and urged caution as regards the way this was presented as this could potentially be used in a negative way.  Similarly, she felt that some of the comments about having an ageing population could come across as being negative in the data, and it was important to celebrate the fact that there was an ageing population, rather than focussing on the negative aspects.  The Chair also suggested that it would be useful to take a wider, inclusive approach to collecting data in the dashboards, for example, by including relevant information from surveys conducted by the voluntary sector, or from organisations such as Healthwatch Doncaster.  In reply, Allan Wiltshire stated that the data could be labelled to show the years.  He also confirmed that wider research and survey findings could be collated and integrated within the dashboards, and he agreed that it was important to consider the tone of the wording and how information was presented to avoid negativity.

Allan Wiltshire informed the Board that a further update could be brought to the Board’s next meeting in November when it would be possible to demonstrate the full products.

The Chair reminded partners that they were invited to submit information that they wished to see included in the repository.

RESOLVED to:-

1)    Note the findings of the JSNA to date; and

2)    Support the forthcoming ‘amnesty’ of wider products, reports and research to be added to the Team Doncaster repository.