Health
There are many dimensions to physical health. People are thought to have 'good physical health' when they have no illnesses or injuries and their body functions well. Data is available about a wide range of illnesses and injuries, behaviours that affect people’s health, and the take- up and effectiveness of healthcare services. Local plans are available about improving health and wellbeing.
You can find data about the health of young people, statistics about their health, and the healthcare services available to them and their families. The NHS collects and publishes information about the performance of services, hospital admissions, referrals, etc. While some sources are too detailed to be easily accessible and usable, there are tools, frameworks and services that can help you find the information you need quickly, and provide an overview of local geographical areas.
Key places to start
The NHS’s Public Health Outcomes Framework includes an enormous range of indicators with many directly relevant to young people, and others useful for contextualising their experience. These can be viewed at country, region and local authority level.
For an overview of young people’s health and information data sources, the Association for Young people’s Health publishes regular reports, and signposts towards more high-quality resources.
Things to consider
Data on health services sometimes follow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) geographic boundaries. CCGs are public bodies that commission most of the hospital and community NHS services in the local areas for which they are responsible. Be aware that the boundaries of CCGs and Local Authorities do not always match.
You should be careful when interpreting the raw data available on healthcare. Data about use of healthcare services and rates of diagnosis will be influenced by the accessibility of those services, rather than reflecting the true prevalence of health issues in the relevant population. An area that has invested in reaching groups that are often excluded or underserved with relevant health information may see higher rates of diagnosis and service use within that population. For instance, an area with more accessible Autism support services may show a higher rate of diagnosis.
Example
Anita is seeking funding to support the adventure playground she runs. Young people and families tell her it’s a lifeline for them, but it’s hard to measure the impact. She checks the Office for National Statistics Health and Wellbeing Tool and sees that her local area scores poorly on ‘access to green spaces’. She looks at the Public Health Outcomes dashboard, selects the ‘area profile’ view and sees that in her area levels of physically active young people are below average for England. She then switches to ‘trends’ view and sees that the level has been falling over the last three years. This suggests that the adventure playground is a key service for local families who may be unable to access other play spaces. She decides to interview a few parents of young people who visit regularly to explore this theory, and includes the information in future funding bids.
Other sources of information
The NHS Outcomes Framework is another large collection of indicators, though fewer of them are directly relevant to young people. It is broken down to the CCG level. If you are part of or partnered with a local authority or health provider, you will be eligible for access to the Health Inequalities Improvement Dashboard which provides another, overlapping, set of relevant indicators.
There are several regular, national surveys that provide useful insight, including The National Diet and Nutrition Survey - which can be segmented by age - and Children’s Health Behaviours Survey.
More detailed, highly specific data is available through NHS Digital’s data service. The level of granularity can make it difficult to use, but it is worth exploring the database for relevant datasets, summaries or tools. Some of its datasets, like the GP practice registration database, can be explored through an intuitive tool, and even those datasets which are only available as hard-to-navigate spreadsheets tend to be published alongside headline statistics that may be useful to you.
Data sources
What this is:
An overview of the health needs of a community, including clinical needs, risk factors and “wider determinants of health” such as poverty and environmental factors. A one-stop shop for local health information and wider demographic data.
Joint Strategic Needs Assessments are developed together by the Local Authority and the local NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, and overseen by the local Health & Wellbeing Board which includes statutory and voluntary sector representatives.
Detailed statistics drawing on a wide range of different data sources, possibly including local NHS service monitoring and additional research commissioned locally, as well as some of the sources included in our guidance.
Who it includes:
This will vary by local plan to local plan.
Where it covers:
Local authority area. However, two or more health and wellbeing boards could choose to work together to produce JSNAs and JHWSs, covering their combined geographical area.
When updated:
Dashboard data is updated monthly. Additional information is available through annual reports.
How to use:
The JSNA for your local area may be available as a published report / pdf, or as a site-based interactive document. It will generally be published on your Local Authority, Clinical Commissioning Group or Health & Wellbeing Board websites. Search for the name of your local area and “JSNA”.
It is likely to include specific sections on children and young people, including early childhood development, mental health, Special Educational Needs / Disabilities and teenage pregnancy. In some places it will also include a focus on violent crime, substance misuse, or other key local risk factors.
The Assessment will sit alongside and inform a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWS) which explains what priorities the Health and Wellbeing Board has set in order to tackle the needs identified in their JSNAs.
Bear in mind:
In producing JSNAs and JHWS, local authorities and CCGs must regard the Department for Health Statutory Guidance on Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies published in 2013. You can check if your local area’s assessment or strategy is in line with Government expectations.
What this is:
The Health Survey for England (HSE) is a series of annual surveys running since 1991 (2020 was missed due to Covid-19). Each survey includes core questions covering physical health, asthma, mental health and wellbeing, lifestyle behaviours such as smoking, drinking, dietary habits and measurements such as blood pressure, blood samples, height and weight. There are also modules of questions on specific issues that vary from year to year.
Who it includes:
The whole population of England. Most results can be broken down by age, ethnicity, and other characteristics.
Where it covers:
Data can be viewed for England.
When updated:
Annually.
How to use:
The survey publishes highlights of the data at a national level. More often, information from this dataset will be analysed and included in collections of indicators.
Bear in mind:
Published data is only available at national level. Research organisations can apply for access to the full dataset.
What this is:
A large collection of indicators collected and published by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England) that cover the “full spectrum of what we understand public health to be, and what we can realistically measure at the moment.”
Indicators are grouped into four domains;
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Wider Determinates, which covers many social issues beyond the medical field such as pupil absence and children in low-income families;
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Health improvement, which includes several key figures for young people including percent who are physically active and obese;
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Health protection, which includes data on young people and STI diagnosis; and
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Healthcare and mortality; none of which can be broken down to young people.
Who it includes:
Dashboard covers the whole population of England. Some indicators focus on young people, others focus on other age groups or the whole population.
Where it covers:
Data can be viewed for England, as well as regions, local authorities, and counties.
When updated:
The collection is updated quarterly, but some measures are drawn from sources that are updated less regularly.
How to use:
Selecting the ‘geography’ option allows you to choose ‘area type’; to choose the level of granularity whether this is ‘England’, regions, local authority or county level. Once this has been selected you can then choose from relevant options - the specific region, local authority or county.
Data can be viewed in ‘area profiles’ and as ‘trends’ showing change over time. In the ‘comparison’ view you can select two indicators - one for the x and one for the y axis. All regions or local authorities (depending on the ‘geography’ you have chosen) will be plotted on a scatter chart allowing you to compare different areas’ performances.
Bear in mind:
Data comes from a variety of different sources that are updated over different time periods and are collected in different ways. Some of the data will be complete as they are collected as part of service operation; some are estimates. To learn more, you can review the methodology behind each indicator.
What this is:
NHS Digital is the national body which designs, develops, and operates the national IT and data services of the NHS. This website collects complete publications pf NHS Digital’s Data. The publications span a wide range of depth and complexity - from prescriptions of specific medications over time, to asthma diagnosis rates, or autism referral waiting times.
Who it includes:
Varies depending on publication.
Where it covers:
Data can be viewed for England, as well as regions, local authorities, and counties.
When updated:
The collection is updated quarterly, but some measures are drawn from sources that are updated less regularly.
How to use:
Selecting the ‘geography’ option allows you to choose ‘area type’; to choose the level of granularity whether this is ‘England’, regions, local authority or county level. Once this has been selected you can then choose from relevant options - the specific region, local authority or county.
Data can be viewed in ‘area profiles’ and as ‘trends’ showing change over time. In the ‘comparison’ view you can select two indicators - one for the x and one for the y axis. All regions or local authorities (depending on the ‘geography’ you have chosen) will be plotted on a scatter chart allowing you to compare different areas’ performances.
Bear in mind:
Data comes from a variety of different sources that are updated over different time periods and are collected in different ways. Some of the data will be complete as they are collected as part of service operation; some are estimates. To learn more, you can review the methodology behind each indicator.
What this is:
The Association for Young People’s Health (AYPH) is a charity whose goal is improving young people’s health and healthcare. They publish an annual report ‘Key Data on Young People’ intended to ‘help you find useful up- to- date national data about young people’s health to use in your day-to-day work in an accessible way, as well as links to other resources and sources of local data.’
Who it includes:
Young people in the UK (age ranges are usually specified).
Where it covers:
Data is available at UK level.
When updated:
Key Data on Young people is published annually. The organisation publishes and signposts towards new and valuable data sources throughout the year.
How to use:
The annual report is a downloadable document, and since 2021 it has also been accompanied by a summary report. The ‘resources’ tab of the website includes key reports covering topics such as health inequalities, supporting young people with mental health conditions to stay in work, and toolkits for educators.
Bear in mind:
This is a high-quality report which provides sources and commentary on the quality of data. It also describes challenging areas where data is missing, unclear, or low quality.
What this is:
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the membership body for paediatricians in the UK and around the world, has published a set of resources, reports, and tools looking at the evidence on child health outcomes and data trends across the UK. Some resources focus on maternal and infant health, but there are also resources covering older children and young people up to 25.
Who it includes:
Children and young people in the UK (age ranges are usually specified).
Where it covers:
Most data is at UK or country level, some tools break down to regional or lower levels.
When updated:
The ‘state of child health’ is published once every few years - once in 2017 and once in 2020, with shorter reviews in intervening years. This schedule has been disrupted by Covid-19, but the intention is to restart regular reporting.
How to use:
Information is segmented into topics- such as ‘Health behaviours’ or ‘mental health’, and sometimes then subdivided further. For each topic you will find key statistics with signposting to the original data source, as well as commentary on both the issue and the datasets as well as recommendations from the RCPH and supplementary material such as interviews with parents or young people.
Bear in mind:
The way information is organised under topics and subheadings is not always intuitive and there is no search function.
What this is:
The Health Index is an Experimental Statistic developed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It measures a broad definition of health, in a way that can be tracked over time and compared between different areas. You can use an interactive tool to explore changes in your local area through changes in the ‘health index’.
Who it includes:
The whole population of England.
Where it covers:
Data can be explored for England, for English regions, and for local authorities.
When updated:
The data at present spans 2015-2019, with expectation that it will be updated with data from more recent years when that becomes available.
How to use:
The tool is relatively straightforward, offering a drop-down list of local authorities to select from. Once you have selected your local authority you will be presented with a report. Note that scores are measured from a baseline of ‘100’ where 100 is equivalent to England's average health in 2015. Scores indicate a change from this baseline. Scores lower than 100 indicate worsening health, and scores higher than 100 indicate improvement. The report includes a subdomain ‘children and young people’ which looks at early years development, pupil absences, pupil attainment, teenage pregnancy, and young people in education, employment and apprenticeships.
Bear in mind:
These data are part of an Experimental Statistic and all results should be treated as provisional. They are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.
Lane Clark and Peacock LLP has developed a web tool for exploring the Health Index further, which illustrates the type of presentation possible for the Health Index and its findings.
See more