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 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 

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:

This exciting new role is pivotal in strengthening our partnership work with the community and voluntary services in each Tusla Region. Through partnership, engagement, and planning, the post holder will lead the commissioning of services, to ensure a broad range of services are in place in each Region to respond to the needs of children, young people and families. This will include universal family support services, early intervention services, and child welfare services.

The post holder will support Area Managers and the Senior Management Team in developing and completing commissioning plans for their respective areas, ensuring that services are aligned with identified needs and priorities. They will work collaboratively with staff across networks to gather information, monitor service delivery, and manage Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with community and voluntary organizations.

The post holder will also play a key role in engaging and working in partnership with other statutory agencies in the Region, to identify emerging needs for children and families living in communities in the Region and ensure that commissioning plans and service plans reflect those needs.

The role is integral in ensuring that children and families across all response pathways have access to the right support at the right time through well-commissioned and governed services.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Network-Level Commissioning Planning

• Work directly with General and Area Managers in SCSIP, PSWs, Residential Managers and the Tusla Commissioning Service s to develop tailored commissioning plans for SCSIP
• Ensure plans are evidence based throughneeds assessments, service mapping, and identified gaps in provision.
• Engage with other statutory agencies,CYPSCs and other Tusla regions as appropriate to explore joint commissioning opportunities.

Needs Assessment and Service Mapping

• Lead on the collation and analysis of data to identify unmet needs and service duplication.
• Use this intelligence to inform commissioning priorities and decisions.

Engagement, Partnership and Development

• Engage with community and voluntary sector providers to understand capacity, innovation, and readiness to deliver services aligned with Tusla’s priorities.
• Support the development of new community and voluntary service initiatives where gaps exist.
• Develop service networks as relevant or useful to the improvement of operational standards as well as benefits to service users

SLA Management and Performance Monitoring

• Support the implementation and monitoring of large-scale Service Level Agreements (SLAs) as delegated by the budget holder.
• Ensure commissioned services are delivering agreed outcomes and value for money.

Governance and Compliance

• Ensure all commissioning activity complies with national policy, procurement rules, and governance frameworks.
• Contribute to the development of commissioning policies, templates, and guidance within SCSIP and Tusla Commissioning.

SCSIP Commissioning Office Collaboration

• Support the GM & Area Managers of SCSIP in service planning, identifying opportunities for service improvement and innovation.
• Contribute to commissioning reviews and strategic planning processes.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Facilitate collaboration between internal teams and external partners to ensure services are co-designed and responsive to the needs of children and families.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement

• Identify and promote innovative commissioning approaches that improve outcomes and efficiency.
• Contribute to learning and development initiatives related to commissioning.

Data Collection

• With the support of the GM, coordinate and lead on Data collection associated with commissioning for the SCSIP team, ensuring standards for the collection of key data points are met in collaboration with relevant staff.
• Lead on annualised data reporting for commissioning within SCSIP.
• Through the commissioning process to engage with NGOS on the collection of data sets relevant to SCSIP. Coordinate the collation of this data for use in annual reports and to inform future service provision

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:

• A 3rd level qualification relevant to the requirements of the role

• Have five years relevant post qualification experience to include experience of in developing and completing commissioning plans

• A proven track record of achieving results through stakeholder and community networking and cross sectoral working as relevant to the role.

• Ability to analyse complex problems, and able to develop business models to investigate a number of options/solutions and their viability, evaluating risk within a changing environment.

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.