The Child and Family Agency was established on 1^st January 2014 and is responsible for a range of statutory functions including provision of child protection, alternative care, specified regulatory services and a range of family support services.  The Agency has commenced a major improvement programme with significant focus on Practice, Culture and Structure.

The Agency currently has responsibility for a budget in excess of €800m and delivers its services through circa 5,000 people in 350 locations across the Country.

The Child and Family Agency has responsibility for the following range of services:

• Child Protection and Welfare
• Family Support
• Alternative Care
• Adoption
• Tusla Education Support Services (TESS)
• Domestic Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV)
• Children’s Service Regulation
• Counselling and Therapeutic Supports

Further information is available on http://www.tusla.ie

The team for Separated Children Seeking International Protection has the responsibility for providing a service to children and young people who are newly arrived in Ireland seeking international protection and who are separated from their parents or their guardian. The team provides valuable support to these most vulnerable children/young people from various countries who come to Ireland for safety, refuge, and better quality of life and as applicants for International Protection.  The aim is to assist the young people in achieving their full potential through education and integration, to participate fully in Irish life and make a meaningful contribution to Irish Society through self-sufficiency and independence. To be supported with reunification where immediate family members join them in Ireland, escaping persecution, war and marginalisation in their country of origin.

The service is multifaceted with operational responsibility for Intake, Duty and Initial Assessment of children and young people notified to Tusla by the IPO under the International Protection Act (IPA) 2015; for the intake eligibility assessment of such referred young people to determine their eligibility for service under the Child Care Act, for the placement of the young person.

The service also manages teams for Children in Care and beneficiaries of temporary protection fleeing war in Ukraine and Subject to Placements under Section 5 of the 1991 Child Care Act; the provision of alternative care placements to Unaccompanied minors in Foster Care, Residential Care, Supported Lodgings and After Care Services.

The team is expanding and involved in extensive service review and development. It is a multicultural team with a strong team ethos committed to meeting the needs of all service users.

Purpose of Role:

Privacy Officers are responsible for the gathering, compiling and processing GDPR data subject requests (SARs), Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, and responses to parliamentary questions and representations (PAD). Each Privacy Officer will act as the first point of contact for data protection (DP) and FOI issues in their relevant Region, and will be responsible for the identification and rolling out of training requirements, as well as the monitoring and reporting of relevant DP and FOI metrics. Privacy Officers will adhere to Data Protection Unit (DPU) and PAD prescribed policy [process and risk], systems and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and attend privacy network learning and continuous development events.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Data Protection Operations

• Assist with the development and implementation of safe and effective Data   management systems within the Region
• Process Subject Access Requests (SARs), Freedom of Information (FOI) and Parliamentary Affairs (PAD) requests in accordance with standard operating procedures.
• Manage and report on local privacy incidents and breaches of personal data and escalate to the central Data Protection Unit (DPU) in Tusla.
• Engage with the DPU on privacy related issues (including status and updates on tasks, activities and relevant queries) emerging from the Region.

Parliamentary Affairs (PAD)

• • Co-ordinate and quality assure responses to parliamentary questions for submission to central PAD in Tusla.

Stakeholder Engagement

• • Proactively engage with the network of Privacy Officers in Tusla and attend learning exchange and training events.
  • Act as a point of contact for the DPU in relation to investigations or queries relating to the Data Protection Commission (DPC) and Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) matters.

Team Effectiveness

• Identify and deliver Data Protection (DP) and FOI training needs as required for the Region in accord with the suite of training developed and approved by the DPU.
• Support effective reporting of DP and FOI metrics including breach statistics, SARs and FOI processing activity and case volumes.
• Lead efforts to maintain up-to-date and accurate local data inventories.

GDPR/DP and FOI Compliance

• Advocate and promote DP and FOI compliance in the Region.
• Ensure Regional staff complete DP and FOI training mandated by the Data Protection Officer (DPO) and the DPU.
• Perform tasks and activities that support compliance with Tusla Privacy Policy, the GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018, Freedom of Information Act and Law Enforcement Directive (LED) within the Region.
• Maintain the privacy risk register in the Region and implement DP and FOI Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

GDPR/DP and FOI Advisory

• Act as the first point of contact for DP and FOI queries and issues within the Region, advising staff on best practice approaches as advised by the Data Protection Unit.

Health & Safety

• Comply with and contribute to the development of policies, procedures, guidelines and safe professional practice and adhere to relevant legislation, regulations and standards.

• Have a working knowledge of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) Standards as they apply to the service for example National Standards for Child Protection and Care and comply with associated Tusla – Child and Family Agency protocols for implementing and maintaining these standards as appropriate to the role.
• To support, promote and actively participate in sustainable energy, water and waste initiatives to create a more sustainable, low carbon and efficient health service.

The above Job Description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to him/her from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office. 

Applicants must by the closing date of application have the following:

• Be currently in employment with Tusla – Child and Family Agency.

 OR                                                                                                                                     

• Be in current and direct employment with the HSE or within other statutory health agencies, or a body which provides services on behalf of the HSE under Section 38 or 39 of the Health Act 2004 or within a body that provides services on behalf of Tusla under Section 56 or Section 59 of the Child and Family Act 2013.

And

• Have at least 2 years’ administrative experience in a designated office within the services mentioned above.

And

Experience

• Demonstrate experience of coordinating management information and systems

                analysis.

• Demonstrate experience of processing Subject Access Requests (SARs) and/or Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in an organisational setting that processes large volumes of sensitive personal data.
•  

And

Skills

• Demonstrate excellent MS Office skills to include Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Demonstrate specialist GDPR/Data Protection, legal or technical (management information and systems analysis) skills.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the work of Tusla, Child & Family Agency and the data processing and sharing activities carried out.

Health

A candidate for and any person holding the office must be fully competent and capable of undertaking the duties attached to the office and be in a state of health such as would indicate a reasonable prospect of ability to render regular and efficient service.

Character

Each candidate for and any person holding the office must be of good character.