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Luan Lún 10 2026

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TESS City Connects Coordinator – Post-Primary Schools

Purpose of the Post
City Connects is a school-based intervention designed to promote equity of outcome for all children. City Connects assesses the strengths and needs of each student in the school and connects students with a tailored set of supports and resources from inside and outside the school. The City Connects programme is a school-based collaboration among schools, services and community agencies, which matches every student with the right services at the right time.
The City Connects pilot was set up in 2020 in Ireland and is led by the Department of Education and Youth and Tusla Education Support Service, in conjunction with the National Centre for City Connects Ireland (NCCCI) and Boston College. City Connects was first introduced in 10 North East Inner City (NEIC) DEIS Band One primary schools and was extended to Junior Cycle students in the NEIC from September 2025. Under DEIS Plus, City Connects will now be extended to two new areas.

Details of Post
The TESS City Connects Coordinator (CCC) will:
• Work in assigned DEIS post-primary school/s in Dublin's NEIC. Each CCC will work across a cluster of schools (comprising 1-2 schools).
• Attend training as required.
• Undertake Whole Class Reviews with respective class teachers.
• Undertake Individual Student Reviews with the respective class teachers, HSCL Coordinators, Guidance Counsellor, if applicable, and all other relevant school staff, community partners and service providers involved with the particular student.
• Conduct annual Student Interest Surveys with all students.
• Connect students to a range of prevention, early intervention, and intensive services and programmes that address the academic, social/emotional/ behavioural, health and family development of each student.
• Collaborate with the other CCCs, school staff and relevant stakeholders in the planning and implementation of the City Connects programme.
• Work with Student Support/Care Teams in the school/s to which they are assigned to identify and respond to the strengths and personal developmental needs of every child in the school.
• Collaborate with all school staff to implement an integrated student support approach.
• Develop and enhance partnerships with varied community, voluntary and statutory service providers to meet the identified needs of students, families, and the school/s.
• Promote the City Connects model of student support to the school community, families, education and services.
• Collaborate with Home School Community Liaison Co-ordinators to engage families and caregivers in building on their understanding of the factors impacting on their children and the ways in which academic outcomes are enhanced by serving the social/emotional and personal development needs of the child.
• Arrange for follow up with programme and service providers in relation to referrals and offer feedback to teachers, principals, families, and others where necessary.
• Collect data on the implementation of the model and the delivery of services and input data on the MyConnects data system.
• Engage with the local HSCL Cluster to ensure alignment between the work of the CCC and HSCL staff members in the area and to build on the positive work of HSCLs around parental engagement and access support in this regard.
• Develop and sustain effective working relationships with School Completion Personnel (SCP), Educational Welfare Officers (EWO), school staff and frontline personnel of various organisations and services, to enable the effective delivery of services to children and families.
• Actively engage in all aspects of City Connects as it develops, including monitoring and evaluation processes, as required.
• Work collaboratively with students, families, principals and teachers.
• Participate in specific training and development programmes which are prescribed by the City Connects model.
• Participate in working groups to contribute to the overall development, implementation and evaluation of City Connects.

Reporting Relationship
The TESS City Connects Coordinator (CCC) will carry out their duties in accordance with relevant Tusla policies and under the direction of the TESS City Connects Programme Manager (CCPM), who will be the practice manager located in TESS providing line management to the CCCs regarding the overall programme. The Programme Manager will act as practice manager and line management will be to TESS.
It is acknowledged that the role is mainly school based and therefore the co-ordinator will follow the direction of the school principal in relation to policies and procedures of the relevant school when working on a school premises. The CCC will work collaboratively with the Implementation Sub-Group in the NCCCI.

Terms of Employment
While the TESS City Connects Coordinator (CCC) will retain their teacher’s terms and conditions, in line with Circular 0007/2023, they will work outside the context of their base school, with a wider education and community focus on City Connects issues.
Cognisant of the critical role of the Principal and Deputy Principal in the overall management of a school:
i. a Principal shall not undertake the duties of a City Connects Coordinator and is not eligible to apply for the CCC post.
ii. a Deputy Principal may undertake the duties of a City Connects Coordinator provided they temporarily relinquish their post of responsibility allowance, and an acting post holder may be appointed.

Contract
Each successful candidate will be required to sign a secondment contract with TUSLA, as the administrative host for City Connects. The contract will be for a duration of 1 year, subject to satisfactory performance for the position and review in accordance with DEY Circular 0029/2018.
Salary
Teachers’ current salary scale in line with DEY Circular 33/2024 plus a Category 4 secondment allowance. As per Report Number 26 of the Teachers Arbitration Board where the successful candidate is in receipt of an honours degree and/or an honours H.Dip allowance, these allowances will also be retained for the duration of the secondment. All other allowances will cease.
Or
Where the successful holds a post of responsibility allowance, and their current salary scale plus current allowances is greater than their current salary scale plus Category 4 secondment allowance, they will retain their current salary scale plus current allowances for the duration of the secondment. No category 4 secondment allowance will be paid in such situations.

Leave and attendance - Without prejudice to 5.2, Annual Leave entitlement for the duration of secondments to the post of Category 4 City Connects Coordinator will, in the main, be in line with the school year, inclusive of the duration of the state examinations. However, Category 4 City Connects Coordinators may be expected to participate in some project preparation or other work during the time that primary or secondary schools are closed. Hours of attendance will be as fixed amount, on average, to not less than 35 hours per week

Principle Duties and Responsibilities
The TESS City Connects Coordinator (CCC) will:
• Engage with the school Principals to implement the City Connects approach in schools.
• The CCC will meet with the relevant teacher/s to discuss and document the strengths and needs of every student across four developmental domains, namely academic, social/emotional/behavioural, health, and family (WCR).
• Identify specific school and/or community services that match each student’s strengths and needs and connect students and families to these services and programmes.
• Document strengths, needs and services in a City Connects Student Profile and Plan for each student and continuously monitor the effectiveness of interventions that have been put in place.
• Develop and maintain enhanced community partnerships with varied community service providers to meet identified needs of students, families and the school.
• Facilitate and nurture partnerships with teachers, parents, students and community agencies in implementing individual student support plans.
• Develop strong links and work with HSCL Coordinators, in order to build on their existing positive relationships with parents, school communities and local services through individual meetings and attendance at cluster meetings.
• Collaborate with relevant SCP Personnel with regard to target students and programme initiatives.
• Engage with Educational Welfare Officer(s) with regard to student attendance.
• Link with Health, Educational and Family Support Services in order to access appropriate student services.
• Liaise with voluntary and statutory agencies in the community and participate in Meitheal (the practice model for Tusla Prevention, Partnership and Family Support (PPFS)), where appropriate.
• Engage in school related issues at community level, which impinge on learning and seek to address these issues, by working collaboratively with parents, students, voluntary and statutory agencies.
The CCC will support, feed into and implement appropriate aspects of the school DEIS plan; support and participate in the review and setting of DEIS targets and the implementation, monitoring and evaluating of these DEIS targets as outlined in the DEIS plan.
The above Job Description is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all the duties involved and consequently, the post holder may be required to perform other duties as appropriate to the post which may be assigned to them by TESS from time to time and to contribute to the development of the post while in office.

Eligibility Criteria
The appointment will be on a secondment basis from 1st September 2026 to 31st August 2027. (Start date may be delayed in order to allow successful candidates time to give notice). Applicants must meet the secondment terms as set out in Circular 0029/2018.
Applicants for the position must:
1. have a minimum of three years teaching service recognised by the Department of Education and Youth for incremental credit purposes
2. be registered with the Teaching Council as a post-primary school teacher under the appropriate route
3. have satisfied all conditions of that registration as per Section 31 of the Teaching Council Act 2011.
All permanent, fixed-term, full-time, part-time and job sharing fully registered post-primary school teachers including teachers on Career Break, are eligible to apply for the post regardless of employment status. The Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003 and the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001 refers
It is desirable for candidates to have minimum 2 years’ experience in a DEIS school.
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.
The sick leave regulations are those applicable to a teacher in line with Circular 0054/2019.
Character - Each candidate for and any person holding the office must be of good character.
Age - Age restrictions shall only apply to a candidate where they are not classified as a new entrant within the meaning of the Public Services Superannuation Act, 2004). A candidate who is not classified as a new entrant must be under 65 years of age.

Post Specific Requirements
Demonstrate a clear understanding of social inclusion issues applicable in areas of significant poverty and deprivation and the physical, emotional, cognitive and social developmental needs of students, in order to connect these students to a range of appropriate prevention, early intervention and intensive services programmes. Experience as a Home School Community Liaison Coordinator working in a DEIS school or experience as a Coordinator in an educational inclusion programme would be beneficial.

Skills, competencies and knowledge
The successful candidate will demonstrate sufficient educational and professional knowledge to carry out the duties and responsibilities of the role including:
• Decision Making and Judgement - Makes decisions and/or consults where appropriate.
• Leadership - Provides immediate leadership by modelling good practice in working towards organisational objectives.
• Planning and creating the service for the future - Provides input to DEIS plans and develops work plans that will ensure that objectives of City Connects in the NEIC are achieved.
• Job Expertise - Continually works on developing areas of functional expertise.
• Personal effectiveness and Initiative - Commits to high levels of personal effectiveness.
• Complying with all relevant legislation, protocols, policies and procedures - Adheres to all Tusla/ DE and school governance standards pertinent to their role.
• Delivering a high-quality service - Maintains high quality of their own work.
• Interpersonal and communication skills - Encourages others to maintain positive attitudes
• Team working and collaborating - works effectively with others in an ethos of teamwork.
• Networking and Influencing- Seeks to develop relationships with other organisations that can assist a successful rollout of City Connects.
• Person Focused –Focussed on excellent service delivery to students and families.
• Record Keeping – Maintains records to a high standard and is familiar with maintaining student files.
• Ability to use evidence for decision making
• Intercultural competence

Application
Applications in the form of a C.V. and a cover letter outlining suitability for the post, highlighting relevant experience should be emailed to Sarah Morley at sarah.morley@tusla.ie
Closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm on Monday 24th August 2026.
Late applications will not be accepted.
A shortlisting process may apply.
Candidates who are successful at interview will be placed on a panel.
This panel will be used for any vacancies that occur during the 2026/27 school year.