The drive to conduct periodic borough wide joint strategic needs assessments to inform service provision is heightening. Historically assessments, when they have taken place, have only occurred within an individual organisation and do not link with partner organisations to give a rounded and holistic view of need and the issues that create need.
Conducting a “needs assessment” is no longer seen just as good practice but now as a statutory requirement within the health, public health and adult social care domains.
Faced with a challenging agenda and an ever diminishing envelope of funding, Bury were keen to become an “early implementer” of joint strategic needs assessments to not only comply with statutory requirements but to also realise the significant benefits of conducting such an exercise as soon as possible.
Bury worked in conjunction with CPC (a public sector consultancy) to develop a workable delivery methodology - called a Strategic Community Needs Assessment (SCNA). Bury have now embarked upon a borough wide needs assessment set to deliver a host of positive outcomes beyond the statutory requirement outlined in the legislation and guidance.
Bury has mature and positive relationships with its fellow public sector providers and the SCNA was the natural progression for the borough in terms of being able to join up services and to look at the most effective resource usage across the range of organisations.
To view Bury Councils SCNA Case Study, please click here.
This case study has also featured on the Improvement and Development Agency (IDEA) website. To view this page, please click here.
