One view of population health across multiple boroughs: shaping system-wide priorities

Client and setting​

An urban NHS integrated care baord: 1.9 million residents, multiple boroughs, 200 general practices, 30+ primary care networks and multiple acute, community and mental health trusts.

The challenge​

Each borough had its own needs assessment and health and wellbeing strategy, but the board had no single view across them. Before the planning round it needed to know what was already understood, where the gaps were, and which priorities were shared across all the boroughs. It had weeks rather than months, and no appetite for multiple new needs assessments.​

What we did

• Indexed and read every health needs analysis and strategy published by the six public health teams since 2020: 102 documents and 5,448 pages, mapped to Start Well, Live Well and Age Well, with every fact checked back to source by an accredited public health specialist.​

• Analysed population and deprivation data to 2035, including how deprivation and ethnicity vary by primary care network and neighbourhood.​

• Selected and analysed indicators from OHID Fingertips and benchmarked them against the regional averages by life stage and borough, keeping risk factors separate from outcomes.​

• Set the findings against the wider policy picture and drew out three priorities common to the whole system, with recommendations for each life stage.​

The outcome​

The commissioners had one evidence base: people aged 65 and over rising from 12.5% to 15.3% of the population by 2035, about 60,000 more; children falling from 20.8% to 18.3%; and a life expectancy gap of up to nine years. It could commit to three priorities across the system rather than work from separate borough lists.​

Timescale and team​

Eight weeks in two phases. Two partners and a public health analyst, with ICB and borough public health colleagues.​