The HSE Child Health Public Health team’s 2024 annual report outlines work on core work streams – the universal National Healthy Childhood Programme, integrated health, Government and stakeholder engagement, and children’s health and wellbeing programmes. There is also information about expanded areas of work including school health and inclusion health, along with practitioner training and resources and parent resources such as mychild.ie.

P.32 Inclusion health for children - Inclusion health for children is a public health approach that aims to improve health and wellbeing outcomes of marginalised and underserved children. These are children who face multiple, overlapping and compounding forms of disadvantage and experience significant barriers to accessing mainstream health services. These populations typically include children exposed to homelessness, children from Roma and Traveller communities, international protection applicant and refugee children, those affected by parental substance use or mental illness, children living in care and those living in extreme poverty. From a public health perspective, inclusion health focuses on addressing the social determinants of health and ensuring equitable access to quality healthcare for all children living in Ireland regardless of their social, economic or legal status. Effective inclusion health strategies for children require cross-sector collaboration between health and social care services, housing, education and community organisations. There is also a need for policy development that addresses upstream factors like poverty reduction, housing security, and immigration policies that affect children’s access to services and overall wellbeing. As the universal programme of clinical care for children, the NHCP must ensure it reaches all children living in Ireland. This requires adopting the fundamental principal of proportionate universalism, recognising that both universal and targeted measures are required to maximise population-level impact while ensuring no child is left behind.