Governance and Leadership

How our organisation is managed and the people who do this.

Sean Abbott Chief Executive

Sean Abbott, Chief Executive

Sean Abbott is the Chief Executive of our organisation. Sean has overall responsibility for coordinating, managing and leading our teams, services and supports.

Sean has worked with Horizons (Cope Foundation) since 1981 and has a wide range of experience and expertise in delivering and developing services and supports for people with an intellectual disability and/or autism and their families. Throughout this time, Sean has worked in both residential and day services, and with people of all levels of ability.

Sean initially qualified as a Registered Nurse Intellectual Disability (RNID) and went on to further education in Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork, and holds a Bachelor in Business Studies and a Masters in Business Administration.

Sean is passionate about ensuring that the people our organisation supports are at the centre of everything that we do. Sean is driven to ensure that we continue to provide the highest quality services and supports for people and their families. Sean is very involved in lobbying for change and progress in the disability sector, nationally.

Click here to learn how you can become a Horizons Board Director

 

 

Governance Code

Principle 1: Leading Organisation

We do this by:

1.1 Agreeing our Vision, purpose and values and making sure that they remain relevant;

1.2 Developing, resourcing, monitoring and evaluating a plan to make sure that our organisation achieves its stated purpose;

1.3 Managing, supporting and holding to account staff, volunteers and all who act on behalf of the organisation.

Principle 2: Exercising control over our organisation

We do this by:

2.1 Identifying and complying with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements;

2.2 Making sure there are appropriate internal financial and management controls;

2.3 Identifying major risks for our organisation and deciding ways of managing the risks.

Principle 3: Being transparent and accountable

We do this by:

3.1 Identifying those who have a legitimate interest in the work of our organisation (stakeholders) and making sure there is a regular and effective communication with them about our organisation;

3.2 Responding to stakeholders’ questions or views about the work of our organisation and how we run it;

3.3 Encouraging and enabling the engagement of those who benefit from our organisation in the planning and decision-making of the organisation.

Principle 4. Working effectively

We do this by:

4.1 Making sure that our governing body, individual board members, committees, staff and volunteers understand their: role, legal duties, and delegated responsibility for decision-making;

4.2 Making sure that as a board we exercise our collective responsibility through board meetings that are efficient and effective;

4.3 Making sure that there is suitable board recruitment, development and retirement processes in place.

Principle 5: Behaving with integrity

We do this by:

5.1 Being honest, fair and independent;

5.2 Understanding, declaring and managing conflicts of interest and conflicts of loyalties;

5.3 Protecting and promoting our organisation’s reputation. We confirm that our organisation is committed to the standards outlined in these principles. We commit to reviewing our organisational practice against the recommended actions for each principle every year.

Each member of our Board of Directors is nominated based on their particular expertise, knowledge and skills.

Meet our Board of Directors

Board sub committees

  • Audit and Risk  Committee
  • Quality and Safety Governance Committee
  • Service Infrastructure Committee
  • Information and Technology Committee
  • Pension Trustee Committee
  • Colleague Success, Remuneration and Nomination Committee
Two young woman outside. It is dusk. The woman on the left is holding a light and the woman on the right has turned on the light., she is standing on a ladder to reach it.

Our annual reports and financial statements

Annual reports and financial statements

Our Executive Team

Chief Executive: Sean Abbott

Chief Operations Officer: Eamon Nash

Head of Finance – John Murphy

Head of Quality, Systems and Shared Services – Marguerite O’Brien

Chief People Officer – Helen Cashell

Director of Nursing – Anna Broderick

Maintaining high standards

We comply with the standards outlined in The Charities Governance Code, which is developed and monitored by the Charities Regulator.  We also comply with our own Governance Code.  Our Governance Code lists the rules that our Board of Directors set out for our organisation. Our Governance Code has 5 Principles. You can read about them here…

You might also like