Health Needs Assessment Toolkit

5. The Project
5.1 Forming a Project Team
The health needs assessment should be a team project so the first step is to
decide who is going to produce it. A good approach would be to discuss the
proposal at a primary health care team meeting where everyone will have the
opportunity to consider becoming involved. Circulate the minutes and invite
interest from anyone who was unable to attend to minimise the risk of not
including someone with much to offer.
The team will ideally include:
a General Practitioner as they are key personnel within the practice, have
a vested interest in the PPDP, can communicate with the other partners
and will need to be involved in decisions which will arise from the action
plan
a Health Visitor and/or Community Nurse. They often possess knowledge
and / or experience of health needs assessment and could make a
significant contribution
an IT expert or someone with the responsibility for data management in
the practice who will probably be a good candidate to take responsibility
for the quantitative study. Support with data collection can be provided by
the PCT PRIMIS facilitator.
the Practice Manager to co-ordinate the project and communicate to
other members of the team
The project team need to be keen, they need a strong leader and at least one
completer/finisher! A team needs to be about four people.
As the assessment will involve those working for other agencies inviting a
representative from one of the key agencies to be part of the team could be
valuable. The agencies would be social services, education, police, local
authority and the voluntary sector. There may be a social worker attached to
the practice or you may wish to develop links with the local police or school
and invite them to send a representative to join the team. You will probably
already have some ideas about the problems that exist in the area and this
may enable you to decide which agency or agencies to include.
It is essential to appoint a team leader who will take responsibility for the
project and to whom all the other team members can report.
Celebrate your success along the way to boost morale and strengthen the
team.
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