The Child and Family Agency was established on 1st 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 of circa €1.2billion and delivers its services through over 5,500 people in 259 locations across the Country.

The Child and Family Agency has responsibility for the following range of services:
•    Child Protection and Welfare 
•    Parenting, Family Support and Early Help Services
•    Alternative Care 
•    Birth Information & Tracing and Adoption 
•    Tusla Education Support Services (TESS)
•    Children’s Service Regulation 
•    Counselling and Therapeutic Supports

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

Purpose of Role:

The post holder will lead and be responsible for the effective delivery and implementation of quality, risk, service improvement initiatives and policy to support service areas meet their statutory obligations and support local practice and governance improvements.
The post holder will work closely with Tusla staff and partners to develop preventative and family support services to ensure the active participation of children, young people, families and other statutory and non-statutory services.
 

Main Duties and Responsibilities 
Incident Management 
•    Support the continued implementation, compliance and monitoring of the Incident Management policy and related guidance.
•    Management of the child deaths protocol locally. 
•    Support the implementation and utilisation of NIMS. 
•    Track implementation of major reports/investigations recommendations, locally, as appropriate 
•    Support the use of Significant Event Notifications, track themes and trends, support sharing of learning.
•    Conduct reviews into serious incidents as per National Incident Management Policy Guidance documents.
•    Share learning across the organisation through defined process and prepare incident trend reports.

Risk Management Systems 
•    Support the continued implementation, compliance and monitoring of the Risk Management policy and related guidance. 
•    Manage initiatives to drive effective risk management in the local area. 
•    Lead on on-going improvement in risk management in the area 
•    Support Risk register development, monitoring and evaluation 
•    Support local teams with advice on matters relating to risk management. 
•    Support learning and development in relation to risk management practice in local area. 

Service Improvement 
•    Support co-ordination of service and quality improvements identified by Area teams, through the implementation of the Quality Improvement Framework and other quality programmes. 
•    Lead on the implementation on the Quality Improvement Framework and support training and the process of self-evaluation of services 
•    Support the Area with the development and tracking of HIQA Action Plans and recommendations from Ombudsman reports, National Review Panel Reports and local Internal Review Reports 
•    Act as liaison with the National Practice Assurance and Service Monitoring Team in relation to completing the annual audit plan and tracking any action emerging.
•    Support the Area with the implementation of their annual self-audit plan.

Complaints Management 
•    To coordinate responses to complaints and compliments as per the Tellus policy and best practice 
•    To analyse the data from complaints to identify themes and trends to inform local service improvements. 
•    Provide data to the Area Manager in relation to complaints management.
•    To implement complaints processes in the area as per Tell Us Policy, Procedure and Guidance. 

General 
•    To ensure that appropriate performance data, quality, risk and improvement review processes are in place within the area to support the delivery of effective child and family services and to ensure improved outcomes for children and families.
•    Maintain a repository of organisational learning from safety incident, risk and incident management, child death/serious incident review and disseminate learning in the area.
•    Contribute to the development and monitoring of performance indicators for risk and incident management systems.
•    Contribute to on-going development of ICT systems for quality and service improvement processes including developments of a Tusla electronic risk register and on-going development of the National Incident Management System. 
•    Active participation in collaborative working on risk and incident related initiatives/committees.
•    Participate in and lead project working groups in the area in relation to risk and incident management and service improvement. 
•    Attend meetings as requested to promote and report upon the Quality, Risk and Service Improvement agenda.
•    Develop and maintain positive working relationships with key stakeholders both internal and external.
•    Undertake special assignments and investigations as directed.
•    Carry out any other appropriate duties or assignments as requested by senior management team and/or the Area Manager 
•    Demonstrate pro-active commitment to all communications with internal and external stakeholders. 

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:

•    Have at least 3 years’ experience in a designated office within the services mentioned above.
•    Have 3 years’ experience of working in a relevant post with a knowledge of quality, risk or service improvement responsibilities and duties.

•    Demonstrated ability and experience in report writing regarding complex information and data for management.
Desirable 
•    Have 2 years’ experience of project management.  

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.