Mission: To make health a top priority for everyone in Northern Ireland.

The new public health strategy, Investing for health, seeks to minimise inequalities in health and social wellbeing in Northern Ireland and to address the determinants of health. An important element of work in this area is the development of alliances between statutory, voluntary and community groups and the empowerment of individuals, groups and communities to become actively involved in decision making which impacts on their health and environment. Involving local people, individually and within their communities, in influencing and shaping health policy, and securing their participation in helping to change policy into action at a local level, remains a major challenge.

The Alliances for health programme works to meet this challenge through:

• policy development and advice;
• research and evaluation;
• public and professional information;
• training and professional development.