Meath County Council invites applications from suitably qualified persons who wish to be considered for inclusion on a panel from which permanent and fixed-term contract vacancies for the position of Healthy Ireland Coordinator shall be drawn.

The Healthy Cities & Counties Programme is a Department of Health funded initiative located within local government with a concerted focus on life-long wellbeing, prevention of illness; enabling wellbeing environments and the reduction of health inequities.  More specifically, the programme highlights the important role and responsibility that local government has in enhancing community wellbeing outcomes. 
The Healthy Cities & Counties Programme promotes a whole-of-local-government approach and seeks to demonstrate how coherent actions across the wider determinants of health and wellbeing areas of local government activity can produce benefits across broader development objectives and many other related policy areas.  This alignment of health and wellbeing activity alongside other local government initiatives with shared objectives is important in driving coherence and collaboration across local government.  The programme has a  formal governance arrangement within the LCDC structure which gives it a strong platform from which to build collaborative effort and support high level goal efforts within Local Economic and Community Plans.
The Healthy Ireland Coordinator is responsible for the delivery of the programme.   A Healthy Ireland Fund secured from the Department of Health is provided to each Local Authority to help leverage activity in specific outcome areas.  The fund is used to lever support for projects in specific outcome areas and its management and administration forms part of the overall work programme of the Coordinator. 
The primary work of the Healthy Ireland Coordinator is a collaborative and networking role to encourage implementation of key wellbeing determinant objectives within local government, explore resource and partnership opportunity locally, regionally and nationally to influence resource allocation flows to the Local Authority for wellbeing outcome focused projects, and seek out opportunity from a European perspective considering the WHO European Healthy Cities Network approach and relevant EU programme activity. 
 

The Healthy Ireland Coordinator is an Administrative Officer grade post. Administrative Officer positions are assigned functional responsibility for the management of their respective Healthy Ireland Programme areas.

The Coordinator is the primary point of contact and liaison with other sections in relation to all operational matters for the Healthy Ireland Programme for which they are responsible and other assigned duties/functions, depending on the organisational arrangements in place.

The post holder will work under the direction and control of the Senior Executive Officer or analogous grade or other officer designated by the Chief Executive or Director of Services as appropriate.  The Coordinator is responsible for management of the day-to-day operations of the relevant programme and is a contributor to the strategic and policy making decisions of the local authority.

They will be expected to contribute to the development and implementation of policies and strategies and to work closely with the elected councillors, Oireachtas members and senior managers in delivering services to the highest standard.

The post holder may represent the Local Authority on committees and at meetings, including for example Municipal District meetings, Strategic Policy Committee meetings and may be asked to report on progress in their respective section or department. The post holder will be expected to support the operations of the elected Council, the Strategic Policy Committees, Municipal Districts and other Council Structures.

The job description below outlines the requirements for the position that operates within a multi-level governance environment—from municipal district and community level to national and EU levels.  This is not a conventional Administrative Officer position. The postholder will be responsible for coordinating, influencing, and aligning activity across political, managerial, sectoral, and community domains, working at local, municipal district, plenary, regional, national and European levels.

The positions require professionals with the ability to coordinate, influence, and lead cross-sectoral and community initiatives that address health inequalities, promote prevention, and build resilient, inclusive place within their designated Local Authority.

Th role will support the delivery of the emerging outcomes framework for Healthy Ireland in 2026, and the WHO European Healthy Cities Network (Phase VIII) objectives at local and regional levels. The role prioritises actions to improve the wider determinants of health through local government’s statutory and developmental responsibilities, with a strong emphasis on empowering communities, research and innovation, intersectoral collaboration, data management and evidence-informed decision-making.

The Healthy Ireland Coordinator will perform such duties as may be assigned from time to time which will involve the facilitation, implementation and promotion of the policies and objectives of Meath County Council for the advancement of the Healthy Cities & Counties Programme.
The duties of the post of the Healthy Ireland Coordinator include, but are not limited to:

• Work intensively with communities of interest and place to co-design, develop, and implement locally tailored wellbeing initiatives.
• Apply principles of empowerment, participation, social justice, and equality in all aspects of planning and delivery.
• Work with relevant Healthy Ireland partners to ensure integrated and improved delivery of health and wellbeing initiatives and support programmes across the County Council.
• Use and gather relevant local datasets to target communities experiencing the greatest health inequities and build evidence case for resource allocation or intervention.
• Develop a 5 year Healthy Cities & Counties Work Programme based on local need and priorities- established from innovative and participatory community engagement and needs assessment exercises with Annual Action Plans comprising of Healthy Ireland Fund or similar funding to action local priorities.
• Participate in Regional Healthy Ireland Coordinator Cluster and National Network fora.
• Map, align and leverage local authority activities that influence the wider determinants of health and include within relevant Healthy Ireland data gathering exercises.
• Advise elected members and senior executives on relevant policies and programmes related to health and wellbeing and deliver relevant upskilling/enabling opportunities.
• Facilitate Local Authority wide/Regional Health and Wellbeing Networks and support the development of local wellbeing forums, and wellbeing leadership initiatives within communities.
• Work confidently and sensitively with elected representatives, senior executives, and cross-sectoral leaders to address determinants of health activity within the local authority.
• Act as a catalyst and connector across directorates and sections (e.g planning, transport, housing, environment, community) to align activity with health and wellbeing objectives.
• Champion whole-system, place-based, preventative approaches to health and wellbeing, working across local authority directorates and with external partners to create enabling environments that foster wellbeing for all.
• Explore resource mechanisms across all Government Departments and at EU level to address local community priorities.
• Leverage research, data, innovation, and WHO/EU collaboration to encourage local government leadership in improving health and wellbeing outcomes.
• Develop or contribute to funding bids where appropriate in conjunction with communities to resource local priority initiatives.
• Capacity to influence, align, and coordinate across internal directorates and external stakeholders and demonstrate partnership management and stakeholder engagement skills e.g co-ordination of Sláintecare Healthy Communities Local Implementation Team.
• Use local data, research, and evidence to shape decisions and measure outcomes and .
• Represent the Local Authority in regional and national networks and participate in international platforms such as the WHO European Healthy Cities Network.
• Drive whole-of-local-government, whole-of-community and whole-of-place approaches to wellbeing, focusing on the social, economic, environmental and cultural determinants of health.