About Social Inclusion

HSE Social Inclusion aims to reduce inequalities in health and improve access to mainstream and targeted health services for vulnerable and excluded groups in Ireland.

Who We Support

HSE Social Inclusion provides a range of services to support the following groups:

• addiction
• homelessness
• intercultural health (including protection applicants, refugees and migrants)
• Irish Travellers and Roma
• LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) 
• domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.
• human trafficking

Our Approach

Our work is guided by three core principles:

1. Social determinants of health – recognising how housing, income, environment, etc., affect wellbeing
2. Inclusion health – ensuring no one is left behind when accessing healthcare
3. Community development approaches – engaging communities to shape solutions

How We Operate

• We partner with a wide range of organisations — NGOs, government agencies, and academic institutions — to improve health for those most in need.
• Our reach extends across many HSE sectors.
• Many of our services are delivered through funding to community and voluntary organisations, while some are provided directly by the HSE.

Participation & Engagement

We believe those with lived experience should have a voice in the health services that affect them. We support involvement in:

• Planning
• Designing
• Delivering
• Monitoring
• Evaluating services

Governance

Governance and accountability are important areas in the HSE. 

National Social Inclusion Governance Group (SIGG)

When developing and putting in place all areas of Social Inclusion, our Governance Group makes sure that appropriate arrangements are in place to coordinate, support and monitor best practice of all our services.

Various working groups report to the SIGG. These include the:

• National Addiction Advisory Governance group (NAGG)
• Homeless Advisory Governance group (HAGG)
• National Migrant Group
• National Traveller Health Advisory Forum (NTHAF)
• Roma Health Network Ireland (RHNI)
• LGBTQI+ sub-group
• Domestic Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV) sub-group
• Human Trafficking sub-group