The HSE works with a large number of public sector organisations, community and voluntary partners, philanthropic organisations, businesses, professional and representative bodies, government departments and international partners. In addition, the HSE funds a large number of community and voluntary agencies and also contracts services with large, charitable and commercial service providers.
The HSE has responsibility for deploying resources and delivering services on the basis of evidence to those most in need, in an effort to improve health and wellbeing, build resilience, empower individuals and families and reduce health inequalities. The HSE also has a role to influence and advocate for other sectors to play their part in working for better health and to assist these sectors in the development and delivery of initiatives that change how people go about their daily lives. These relationships and partnerships present a huge opportunity to align priorities and resources with the aim of improving health, reducing health inequalities, supporting equal access to quality services, mobilising community involvement and empowering citizens. We have an opportunity to further develop our funding programmes and partnership models to capitalise on these relationships and build a broader coalition of support for the health and wellbeing agenda. We also have a lot to learn from our partners, many of whom are thought leaders and have specific expertise and capability in the broad area of population health and wellbeing improvement.
Of all of our partners, it is important to acknowledge the work of local authorities in Ireland. County council and city managers across the country are leading a new emphasis in their work in shaping local communities to be better places to live and age well. The Age Friendly County Programme is now up and running in every local authority in Ireland and structures are in place or being put in place to support cross-sectoral involvement and the HSE plays an active role supporting this Programme.
The HSE has representation on many of the newly formed Local Community Development Committees (LCDCs) enabling joint working to address local health and wellbeing patterns and improve health outcomes for all, particularly those most at risk and experiencing poorer health outcomes.
Over the next three years, the HSE has committed to work harder with our local authority partners to realise real health and wellbeing improvement gains for the communities we serve. The HSE also supports the work of the Children and Young People’s Services Committees designed to improve outcomes for children and young people through local and national inter-agency working.
