Grade VI Digital and Marketing Officer

Purpose of Role

The Tusla Fostering Recruitment Team is looking for an experienced Digital and Marketing Officer who can help increase its awareness and profile and encourage the engagement or prospective foster carers.

The post-holder will work under the guidance and direction of the National Fostering Recruitment Manager and the Communications Lead for Fostering to provide timely and effective digital, advertising and marketing support. The role will include assisting with the delivery of marketing and advertising campaigns, creating digital content for online dissemination, analysing campaigns, updating the fostering.ie website and managing social media channels and other activities that result in improved public engagement with Tusla Fostering.

The Marketing Officer will also be required to work with the corporate communications team on issues relating to messaging, campaign planning and overall targets and aims for communications relating to Tusla Fostering.

Reporting Relationship

The successful candidate will report to the National Fostering Recruitment Manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• Implement and monitor Tusla’s fostering recruitment marketing strategy that will target prospective foster carers.

• Assist in the development of on-brand marketing materials and advertising to support recruitment.

• Assist with bespoke advertising campaign for foster carers.

• Plan and execute national and local advertising.

• Coordinate the design and print of Tusla Fostering assets.

• Produce timely reports which detail the activity and outcomes of the marketing recruitment strategy.

• Where necessary, work with colleagues and partner organisations to ensure the coordinated delivery of promotions and campaigns related to fostering recruitment.

• Create, populate and manage new social media platforms with engaging content for Tusla Fostering and expand its digital media presence.

• Manage the new fostering.ie website design and updates in collaboration with the digital and comms teams.

• Optimise content according to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

• Monitor and evaluate activities against targets and timescales.

• Use content management systems to analyse website traffic and user engagement metrics.

• Identify content generation opportunities and create associated content calendar.

• Show commitment to consistency and excellence across all our online content in terms of quality and tone of voice.

• Repurpose content for different mediums including social media, video, infographics, etc.

• Perform basic image, graphic and video creation and editing tasks.

• Keep up to date with industry best practice and monitor content activities of competitor websites and social media platforms.

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.

Eligibility Criteria

Qualifications and / or Experience

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

• A minimum of three years’ experience in analysing, developing and delivering, marketing and digital campaigns (including knowledge of all major social media platforms).

• Experience with desktop design software, such as Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign and Image-editing packages such as Photoshop etc.).

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including communicating ideas, vision, and information clearly to internal and external audiences.

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.

Skills, competencies and/or knowledge

Tusla Leadership Competency Framework

The Tusla Leadership Competency Framework describes the behaviours that are key to Tusla colleagues being effective in the execution of their role at all levels within the Agency. The competencies and associated behavioural descriptors capture the transversal knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics that will enable colleagues, regardless of role or rank, to be effective in their work.

The Tusla Leader Framework relevant for this role is Leading Others.

Please access this Leading Others link to fully familiarise yourself with the impact of this Leading Others proficiency for Tusla.

The Competency of Professional Knowledge is specifically linked to the duties, responsibilities and criteria for this role.

Other requirements of the role

• The post holder will require access to appropriate transport as the post may involve travel.

• Have awareness of children and young people’s participatory practice.

Application Process

Campaign Specific Selection Process – Shortlisting / Interview

The online application system has a time out facility, this is in order to protect the privacy of the user. This time out facility activates if the application has been ‘dormant’ for over 60 minutes. Any work not saved will be lost if the system times out due to lack of activity. As such please ensure to save your application as you work on it, any lost data cannot be recovered.

It might be an idea for candidates to work on their applications outside of the system and copy and paste their answers into the online application forms once they are fully complete and submit then.

Once your application is fully submitted you will receive a confirmation email to your profile. If you do not receive this email, your application HAS NOT been submitted and received and you should log back on to submit fully.

AI generated content must not be used in your application. Tusla reserves the right to assess if content in applications is likely created by AI in part or in whole. Use of AI may result in disqualification and exclusion from the recruitment process.

Short listing may be carried out on the basis of information supplied in your application. The criteria for short listing are based on the requirements of the post as outlined in the eligibility criteria and skills, competencies and/or knowledge section of this job specification. Therefore, it is very important that you think about your experience in light of those requirements. Failure to include information regarding these requirements may result in you not being called forward to the next stage of the selection process.

Those successful at the shortlisting stage of this process (where applied) will be called forward to interview.

Tenure

The current vacancy available is permanent and whole time.

The post is pensionable.

A panel may be created for the purpose of filling this position. Once the position is appointed the panel will cease.

Appointment as an employee of the Child & Family Agency is governed by the Child and Family Agency Act, 2013 and the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004.

Remuneration

The Salary scale for the whole time equivalent of this post is:

01/08/2025: €57,325, €58,691, €60,359, €63,491, €65,363, €67,695, €70,034 LSIs

LSIs (Long Service Increments) are represented by emboldened figures. 1st LSI is paid after 3 years on the max, the 2nd LSI after 3 years on LSI1, and the 3rd LSI after 3 years on the 2nd LSI (where applicable).

The appointee shall commence on the first point of the salary scale. Incremental credit may be given on appointment for certain types of relevant experience – more information available in Appendix 5.

Candidates should note that entry will be at the minimum point of the scale and will not be subject to negotiation, and the rate of remuneration may be adjusted from time to time in line with Government pay policy.

Different terms and conditions may apply if the appointee is currently a serving civil or public servant.

Working Week

The standard working week applying to the whole time equivalent of this post is 35 hours.

Annual Leave

The annual leave associated with the whole time equivalent of this post is 30 days per annum.

Superannuation

This is a pensionable position with Tusla. The successful candidate will upon appointment become a member of the appropriate pension scheme. Pension scheme membership will be notified within the contract of employment.

Probation

2. A probation period of 39 weeks, or proportion of same for fixed term/specified purpose contracts, where applicable shall apply from the commencement of employment, during which the contract may be terminated by either party in accordance with this contract.

The probationary period may be extended at the discretion of management by a further 9 weeks or proportion of same for fixed term/specified purpose contracts, where applicable.

Confirmation of appointment as a permanent member of staff is subject to the successful completion of the probationary period, for permanent contracts.

Where you have already completed a probationary period with the Child and Family Agency, Health Service Executive, Local Authority, and there is no break in service, no period of probation applies.