Health and social needs in Somerset 2002
Second report of the Health and Social Needs Analysis Group (HSNAG)

Primary Care Trust Report

Summary
 
This is the second public report of the Somerset Health and Social Needs Analysis Group. The group, established in October 1998, published its first report in 1999. This was following the successful development of a multi-agency information set for Somerset. Data on a wide range of issues, including accidents, benefit dependency, crime and disorder, education, employment, health, housing and social service use, were mapped out at ward level. Three deprivation measures were also developed for Somerset, an all ages measure, a children’s measure and an older age measure.
 
This report follows the up-dating of the information set. New variables have been added and the deprivation measures re-calculated. This gives an up-to-date picture of health and social need in Somerset and, as with the previous report, provides an essential tool with which to assess levels of health and social need. It provides a holistic picture of patterns of poverty and deprivation and identifies neighbourhoods that suffer the most multiple and intense deprivation.
 
Since the first report was produced the information contained in the dataset has been used by a wide variety of agencies – to assess needs, identify priority areas for investment, allocate resources and plan services. It has been used to prepare bids for funding and has succeeded in raising funds to provide access to new services and resources in some of the most deprived areas in Somerset. The use and usefulness of the first report and database have been evaluated and a summary of the results of this evaluation is included in this report.
 
Section 1 of this report outlines the background to the work of the group, gives details of the deprivation measures and summarises the results of the evaluation of the first report.  It also gives some examples of how the data has been used, outlines local and national developments since the first report and summarises the findings of the new analysis.  Section 2 gives a summary of how to use the data, which is then presented in a series of appendices.