Overview
Needs assessment is the systematic process of identifying what needs exist in a community or target group and how large they are, as a basis for setting programme goals and allocating resources. In "The concept of social need," published in New Society in 1972, the British social policy scholar Jonathan Bradshaw distinguished four kinds of need according to who defines need and on what grounds. Unlike need theories of individual motivation such as Maslow's hierarchy, Bradshaw's taxonomy concerns the standards by which social policy measures and judges need.
Bradshaw's four types of need
- Normative need: need that exists when a standard set by experts or administrators (for example a minimum income or nutritional standard) is not met. It looks objective, but standards vary over time and with professional values, and can be paternalistic.
- Felt need: what people themselves want or feel they need. It is gathered through surveys or interviews but may be inflated or understated depending on expectations and information.
- Expressed need: felt need turned into action (demand), such as applications for services or waiting lists. It is easy to measure but misses people who do not know about or cannot reach services.
- Comparative need: need revealed when a group does not receive services that other groups or areas with similar characteristics do. Useful for judging equity between areas, though the comparison group's service level is not necessarily adequate.
Combining the types
Bradshaw argued that real need is most likely when all four criteria are present, and analysed need by combining the presence or absence of each type. Where people fall below an expert standard (normative) but do not feel a need, education and outreach are called for; where people feel a need (felt) but do not apply, access must be improved. Relying on a single type distorts judgement, so several perspectives should be used together.
Methods of needs assessment
- Key informant approach: gathering views from people who know the area well, such as officials, social workers and community leaders. Quick and cheap but open to informants' biases.
- Community forum: residents meet to describe problems and needs directly. It raises participation, but vocal groups may be over-represented.
- Rates under treatment: analysing agency service records and waiting lists, suited to identifying expressed need.
- Social indicators: estimating normative and comparative need from secondary data such as population, income, unemployment and health statistics.
- Surveys: questionnaires to a sample of residents, the most systematic way to identify felt need. Design and sampling follow the social research process, and it is costly and time-consuming.
Use in practice
Needs assessment is the starting point for problem identification in the community practice process and for programme planning. Witkin and Altschuld define need as the gap between the current and the desired state and set out a phased process of pre-assessment, data collection and priority setting. The results inform service priorities, targeting and improvements to the service delivery system.
See also: Rothman's Community Practice Models
References
- Bradshaw, J. (1972). The concept of social need. New Society, 19(496), 640–643.
- Bradshaw, J. (1972). A taxonomy of social need. In G. McLachlan (Ed.), Problems and Progress in Medical Care: Essays on Current Research, 7th Series (pp. 71–82). London: Oxford University Press.
- Witkin, B. R., & Altschuld, J. W. (1995). Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.