Guidance
This page provides answers to a number of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the JSNA, as well as a glossary of key terms that are used across the website.
Some useful How-to videos, about the website and how to navigate through it, have been developed. These include an overview of the website structure, navigation guides and tips for using the Topic Packs. Please take a look at the relevant videos below to help you find your way.
Alternatively, you can access a downloadable guide on how to navigate the site here.
If you have any queries about the Berkshire East JSNA process or website, please do contact us. This will help to develop this page.
A webinar for professionals was held on 7th September 2022 by the JSNA leads across Berkshire East. The content of the webinar is the same information that is provided in the How-to videos above, but if you wish to watch the webinar recording, you can find the link to this here.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The three local authorities in Berkshire East – Bracknell Forest Council, Slough Borough Council and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead – often work collectively to improve the health and wellbeing of residents across the area. The local authorities are all part of the Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) and share a Joint Director of Public Health who leads across the whole of Berkshire East.
The Berkshire East JSNA website is an example of this joint-working. By bringing information together for a wider geography, it is possible to assess health and inequalities across Berkshire East and share learning with each other. Information on this website will continue to be shown separately for Bracknell Forest, Slough and RBWM to ensure that local data and inequalities are also easily available for each local authority. This approach supports the separate JSNA priority-setting processes that take place in each Health & Wellbeing Board.
The shared vision for the Berkshire East JSNA aims to provide a website that is:
- Accessible to all
- Relevant to our population
- Understandable
- Useful
- Local
- Responsive to change
- Informed by detailed needs assessments
The Berkshire Observatory is one element of the overall JSNA. The Observatory provides the latest available data for thousands of indicators in one place. It does not include insights or interpretation about what the data means, nor does it allow access to other work that has happened across Berkshire East.
By providing both the Berkshire East JSNA website and the Berkshire Observatory we are enabling people to access a range of tools that can help in decision making or identifying gaps that need to be addressed.
The different resources included on the JSNA website will state what comparator groups they are using and why. These can sometimes differ depending on the availability of data and also the type of information that is being compared. As a general rule, any analysis created by Berkshire East’s Public Health Teams will include comparators to the national (England) and regional (South East England) data where available.
Topic Pack Comparators
The topic packs include national (England) and regional (South East) comparators wherever available. In addition, the three local authorities are also compared with the 15 local authorities that are in their deprivation decile group. This gives a fairer comparison for many indicators, as levels of deprivation are often one of the key inequalities that impact on health and wellbeing measures.
Bracknell Forest and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead are both in the least deprived decile nationally based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019. This is sometimes referred to as decile 10 (out of 10) Other upper-tier local authorities in this group include:
- Bath and North East Somerset
- Buckinghamshire
- Central Bedfordshire
- Isles of Scilly
- Kingston upon Thames
- Oxfordshire
- Richmond upon Thames
- Rutland
- South Gloucestershire
- Surrey
- West Berkshire
- Wokingham
- York
Slough is in the fifth more deprived decile nationally based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019. This is sometimes referred to as decile 6 (out of 10) Other upper-tier local authorities in this group include:
- Bury
- Cornwall
- Croydon
- Dudley
- Ealing
- Greenwich
- Isle of Wight
- Kirklees
- Lambeth
- Lancashire
- Medway
- Slough
- Southend on Sea
- Telford and Wrekin
- Waltham Forest
The Berkshire East JSNA website was launched on 31st January 2022 to a number of key professional groups, including local staff across the Berkshire East local authorities and health organisations. The aim of this soft-launch was to gain feedback about the website design, content and structure, prior to the full public launch of the JSNA website.
The consultation ran from 31st January to 28th February 2002. Feedback was collated through an online form, as well as engagement events and presentations in each of the three Berkshire East local authorities – Bracknell Forest, Slough and the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM).
A summary of the consultation feedback, and the improvements that were made as a result of this, are available in our “You said, we did” report. These included changes to the website structure to make it easier to use and navigate, the introduction of more visuals and the inclusion of more overarching resources and local strategies.
The JSNA is a continual process and we are keen to receive feedback about how the website could be improved. The Berkshire East JSNA Steering Group will review feedback on a regular basis, which will help to shape how the website is developed further. If you have any comments or suggestions, please do contact us.
The JSNAs for the three Berkshire West local authorities are available on the Berkshire Observatory. For more information, please go to the following pages:
The JSNA is a process, rather than a published document, so it will never be finished! New information and evidence will continue to be added to the website to inform priority setting across Berkshire East.
The new website gives us a clearer structure to share information and has been described as a ‘bookshelf’. The Berkshire East JSNA Steering Group have prioritised the next sections to be added to this bookshelf, including Mental Health and a detailed look at disadvantaged groups and inequalities. This prioritisation process is informed by the focus of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies in Berkshire East.
Data from the 2021 Census has started to be published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is currently at a high-level (population and household figures at a local authority). The Berkshire Observatory includes a summary of this data and will continue to be updated as more information is released by ONS. The full ONS schedule for the census can be found at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/aboutcensus/releaseplans
More detailed analyses of population and demographic data will be added to the ‘People’ and ‘Place’ section of the Berkshire East website shortly. This will include key findings and interpretation about how the population profile is changing locally.
There is a latest updates section included on the main page of the JSNA website that will be updated when any topic areas are updated. Emails will also be sent to identified people when subject areas relevant to them are updated.
We also plan to have a schedule of topic packs, so that you can see what is currently being worked on or planned for the next 6 months.
The JSNA process is currently under review, following the launch of the website. This review aims to ensure that the right governance arrangements are in place to identify appropriate people that should be involved in the development of individual topic packs. It is key to get input from local experts, as they will have valuable insight into the local picture.
If there are specific sections of the JSNA that you would like to be involved in, please email your relevant leads or the hub team with your areas of interest.
If you have any relevant* finalised work that is in an accessible format and able to be shared in the public domain (no restricted data to be included), please send to either your local authority JSNA lead or to the PH.Information@bracknell-forest.co.uk mailbox for consideration.
* Any work that shows decision making or needs analysis to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population effectively is work that is part of the JSNA.
Glossary of Terms
The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) is a measure of relative deprivation for small areas (Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). The Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks every small area in England from 1 (most deprived area) to 32,844 (least deprived area).
IMD is a combined measure of deprivation based on a total of 37 separate indicators that have been grouped into seven domains. Each of these reflect a different aspect of deprivation experienced by individuals living in an area. The seven domains are:
- Income Deprivation
- Employment Deprivation
- Education, Skills and Training Deprivation
- Health Deprivation and Disability
- Crime
- Barriers to Housing and Services
- Living Environment Deprivation
When using the IMD measure, we typically refer to deciles or quintiles. These refer to the data as a percentage of the total. Deciles show data split into 10 equal groups, so the least deprived decile would include areas within the top 10% most affluent areas in England. Quintiles show data split into 5 equal groups, so the least deprived quintile would include areas within the top 20% most affluent in England.
Inequality is ‘the difference in size, degree or circumstance’ for one group of people, compared to another. This indicates a the lack of equality. When we use this term within our JSNA products, we are referring to groups of people who may be more disadvantaged than others. Examples of recognised inequalities for health indicators include sex, age, ethnicity, sexuality, socio-economic group and education levels. One of the largest inequality gaps that can be seen in health and wellbeing outcomes is for people living in the most deprived areas of a community, compared to those living in the least deprived areas.
Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) are geographic areas that have an average population size of 1,500 people or 650 households. When data is given at this level, we can compare these areas as they are all approximately the same size. It can also help to show pockets of unmet need or inequality that larger geographical areas may disguise.
Prevalence is the proportion of a population who have a specific characteristic within a given timeframe. So, when we talk about the prevalence of a disease or behaviour, it is the percentage of the population that have or do this in the population. For example, the prevalence of smokers would be the proportion of the population that smoke in the stated time period.
Incidence is the proportion of a population who have a new case of a specific characteristic within a given time period. For example, the incidence of cancer would measure the proportion of the population that were newly diagnosed with cancer in the given timeframe. Prevalence of cancer would measure all people with a cancer diagnosis in the time period, regardless of when they were diagnosed.
The term ‘statistically significant’ means that the difference between two values is unlikely to be explained solely by chance or random factors. The JSNA often refers to statistical significance between a local authority’s figure and the national or regional benchmark, for example the proportion of adults who are physically active in Bracknell Forest is significantly better than England’s.
The majority of indicators included in the JSNA will use a similar statistical methodology to the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities Fingertips Profiles. These will compare a local authority’s figure with England’s 95% confidence intervals to measure the range of likely values. If a local authority is statistically different to England it means that their value sits outside of this 95% confidence interval range and that there is only a 5% likelihood that this difference is due to chance.
Some indicators may not have statistical significance shown, as there is not enough information to determine whether there is a real difference between the figures shown (for example: a small sample size or population, data quality issues).
