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 www.tusla.ie

About Tusla’s Quality & Regulation Directorate
Tusla’s Quality & Regulation Directorate is concerned with promoting continuous improvement and effective risk management in services for children and families. It delivers its functions though the following teams:

Early Years’ Inspectorate
The Early Years’ Inspectorate is the independent statutory regulator of Early Years’ Services and is responsible for registering and inspecting pre-schools, playgroups, crèches, day care and similar services. Its role is to promote the quality, safety and appropriate care of children by robust regulation of the sector.

Alternative Education
Children who are educated at home or who attend a non-recognised school (i.e. a school that is not funded by the Department of Educational and Skills) must be registered with Tusla by their parents/guardians. The registration process requires that an assessment or assessments be carried out to determine whether the child is receiving a certain minimum education and therefore can be placed on the statutory register of children educated outside of a recognised school.

Risk and Incident Management
The Risk & Incident management team within the Quality& Regulation directorate supports and advises the Executive management team (EMT) on best practice related to risk and incident management processes. The team supports the Chief Risk officer around the administration of the National corporate risk register, and supports the assurance process pertaining to risk and incident management frameworks and systems within the Agency.

Performance Reporting and Information
The Performance Reporting and Information team collates analyses and reports on quality and risk data relevant to the child and services. It identifies trends and performance data to support accountability and transparency, inform policy development and legislative reform, to demonstrate where standards and targets are being met, and identify risk and support decision-making at all levels of the organisation.

Practice Assurance and Monitoring
The team monitors and reports on service delivery against standards, regulations and legislative requirements, and seeks to ensure that service improvement activity takes place in response to reviews.

Service Experience and Feedback
The service Experience and Feedback team assures and maintains the ongoing and effective implementation of Part 9 of the Child and Family Agency Act 2013 which governs complaints procedures of local resolution, informal resolution or investigation and investigation reviews. The team is responsible for assuring and monitoring Tusla’s statutory complaint management process and ensuring that complaints received through the “Tell Us” complaints and feedback portal or tellus@tusla.ie are appropriately recorded and directed to the relevant staff. This team are also responsible for nationwide training of Tusla staff on how to manage local resolution of complaints, the training of complaint investigation and review officers, the collecting and distribution of performance metrics on complaint handling, channelling complaints and feedback, and supporting service users to use the complaints process.

Alternative Care and Commissioned Services
The team monitors and reports on alternative care settings for children who cannot live with their families. It aims to deliver purposeful intelligence-led regulation with a view to service improvement in commissioned services.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
Risk Management
• Oversee the implementation of risk management framework and systems within Tusla.
• Management of the risk and incident team and business partnering arrangements.
• Produce quarterly reports for the Chief Risk Officer on the National Corporate Risk Register for the Tusla Board and the Audit and Risk sub-committee, and yearly reports on the agency’s organisational risk management activities.
• Maintain and monitor the digital National Corporate Risk Register, ensuring a system for the seamless flow of risk information from other Directorates and from local to national services.
• Support the Office of the Director of Quality and Regulation as needed in the administration and monitoring of the National Corporate Risk Register .
• Provide expert advice and support to the Director and the Executive Management Team on matters relating to organisational risk management
• Identify opportunities for service and quality improvements.
• Work closely with service managers to ensure that organisational risk management standards are achieved.
• Promote a safe environment for service users.
• Oversee the development of policies and procedures in relation to organisational risk management
• Lead and co-ordinate learning and development in relation to risk management practice a in Tusla.
• Support the implementation of digital/ electronic solutions in respect of risk management throughout the agency.
• Support the development of risk profiles in Tusla as required.
• Support the development of key Risk Indicators in relation to the Corporate Risk Register risks. Support development across all functions to support risk management.
• Provide any other organisational risk management oversight reports that may be requested by the executive management team, the Tusla chief risk officer or the Tusla Board.

Incident Management
• Oversee the implementation of incident management systems within Tusla.
• Manage the ongoing implementation of the NIMS system within Tusla.
• Support improvements to the NIMS system in conjunction with the State Claims Agency and devise strategies to develop and improve incident reporting, management and review.
• Support and promote organisational compliance with regarding to NIMS incident reporting.
• Contribute to the development of training tools and supports with regard to the implementation of the incident management policy and NIMS
• Provide guidance and advice to staff on NIMS incident recording as necessary.
• Oversee the development and review of policies and procedures in relation to incident management.
• Lead and/or co-ordinate incident reviews as required
• Produce reports with regard to incident reporting on NIMS to analyse data quality and incident trends to support learning from incidents,
• Develop, monitor and report on KPI’s with associated meta data for effective incident management.
• Promote a service user focus in the management and review of incidents.
• Promote a learning culture in relation to the use of incident data and reviews.
• Ensure effective linkages with external bodies e.g. HIQA, HSA, SCA and insurers in relation to reporting of incidents
• Lead and co-ordinate learning and development in relation to incident management practice in Tusla, to include training in respect of the methodologies for conducting reviews and use of systems analysis methodology.
• Provide expert advice and support to the National Director and the Executive Management Team on matters relating to Incident management processes

National Review Panel
• Support the operation of the National Review Panel in accordance with DCDE interim guidance and Tusla policy.
• Line manage the service manager to the National Review Panel.
• Produce required reports in respect of referrals to, and reports received from, the National Review Panel as requested.
• Ensure a process is in place for the tracking of recommendations from National Review Panel reports

Board and Executive reporting
• Provide high quality and insightful reports for the Tusla Board and Executive on a regular basis to ensure the Board and the Executive are advised of significant incidents and or emerging risks.
• Support the role of the Chief Risk Officer in the discharge of their duties in line with the code of governance for state bodies.

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.

Please refer to the Candidate Information pack attached to this campaign for full and further detail.

Applicants must by the closing date of application have the following:
• Relevant third level qualification (Qualification relevant to Tusla Child and Family services or Risk/Quality Management).
• Knowledge and experience of care services.
• Three years’ experience in risk management.
• Experience of conducting /reviews.
• Three years’ experience of change management on a meaningful scale.
• Experience in system implementation and training development.
• Experience in the use and illustration of data for reporting purposes

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.