Disaster Case Management

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Program Support Center (PSC) on behalf of the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) intends to solicit offers to provide Immediate Disaster Case Management (IDCM) services to states affected by both natural and man-made disasters utilizing a National contractor to provide case management services. The contract will be a base year with four 1-year options. The North American Industrial Classification System (NACIS) code for this effort is 624230. The RFP will be issued approximately on April 4, 2014 with an anticipated award date of May 28, 2014. The RFP will be made available electronically at this address: http://www.fedbizops.gov. All questions are to be submitted in writing to the point of contact information provided in the notice, phone calls will not be accepted. A. General Information The Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) exists to strengthen our nation's emergency response and recovery system through the integration and delivery of human services to persons affected by disasters. ACF, in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provide Immediate Disaster Case Management (IDCM) services to states affected by both natural and man-made disasters utilizing a National contractor to provide case management services. Our goal is to identify a contractor that enables the federal government to provide trained, screened and credentialed disaster management assets that are able to deploy within seventy-two (72) hours following notification by ACF of a request for Immediate Disaster Case Management (IDCM) services. Background ACF administers federal programs that promote the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities. ACF programs aim to achieve the following: - Empower families and individuals to increase their economic independence and productivity - Encourage strong, healthy, supportive communities that have a positive impact on quality of life and the development of children - Create partnerships with front-line service providers, states, localities and tribal communities to identify and implement solutions that transcend traditional program boundaries - Improve access to services through planning, reform and integration - Address the needs, strengths and abilities of vulnerable populations including the elderly, displaced children without parents, people with developmental disabilities, refugees and migrants Post Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, it became apparent that individuals and families impacted by disasters often require disaster case management services to regain self-sufficiency and return to a pre-disaster state. However, at the time, there was no Federal authority to fund disaster case management as part of a Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) declaration. As a result, Congress passed the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (PKEMRA) which "grants the President authority to provide case-management services, including financial assistance to state or local government agencies or private organizations to provide such services, to survivors of major disasters". Much has been accomplished since 2006 to improve human service preparedness delivery for a disaster, including the provision of disaster case management for individuals and families. Many States, human service organizations, and Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster (VOAD) have developed plans that include provisions of, or support for, disaster case management. However, there are still many States that do not have the capacity or plans for disaster case management. Most plans assume that human services will be delivered to those adversely impacted by disaster by existing agencies at the state or local level with some federal assistance and that case management will be either delivered by those same agencies or supported by voluntary agencies and faith-based groups within the impacted area. However, when a major disaster occurs and then impacts thousands of individuals or families, the ability of those agencies within the impacted area to provide disaster case management services could be compromised. Therefore, it is necessary to have a plan to support States and local communities in a manner that will fill existing gaps identified by the State, until the State is able to implement their own case management program. In 2007, to address the issue of providing disaster case management, meetings were held with some of the Nation's foremost experts in disaster case management. These meetings were hosted by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) through support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). The purpose of OHSEPR is to focus attention on human services preparedness and response activities after a disaster has occurred. One of the primary goals of OHSEPR is to promote self-sufficiency of individuals, families, and access and functional needs populations prior to, during and after disasters. The Federal Government, to the maximum extent possible endeavors to prepare for and reduce a disaster's impact on existing service delivery to citizens by assisting and connecting disaster clients to services. Quickly linking disaster clients to appropriate resources and assistance will most likely reduce the disaster survivor's dependency for more intensive healthcare and traditional social service benefits; thus reducing the impact on states and existing programs. B. Contractor Requirements - Contractor should have at a minimum 4 years of experience staffing and deploying required resources/personnel for disaster response and recovery missions. - Contractor should have experience responding to presidentially declared disasters and deploying personnel to provide health and/or human services support to disaster survivors. - Contractor should have experience working with federal, state, tribal, local partners, non-governmental agencies, and other volunteer organizations active in disasters during response and recovery operations. - Contractor should have enough capital available to fund first 30 days of deployment mission, all cost are reimbursable through Stafford Act funding - Contractor must have an infrastructure and scalable staffing in place that can operate in a disaster response environment by either having subcontractors to serve in this capacity or the ability to directly hire additional assets as needed to support ongoing operations. Overarching Goal The contractor will support the creation a management infrastructure that will: 1) provide the federal government with a cadre of trained, screened and credentialed disaster management assets; 2) deploy within seventy-two (72) hours following notification by ACF of a request for Immediate Disaster Case Management (IDCM) services; 3) Provide IDCM services utilizing ACF's IDCM Concept of Operations (IDCM ConOps) as guidance for implementation and closure of services. Implementation The IDCM program is implemented through the following process: - A disaster declaration is issued by the President allowing for Individual Assistance - The governor within the affected state request IDCM - A needs assessment is conducted in the affected state in partnership with FEMA - Based on the assessment and determination of ACF and other federal partners, IDCM will - activate to meet the size and scope of the disaster. C. Scope of Work The contractor must provide or complete the following tasks: C.5.0 GENERAL TASKS C.5.1 PROGRAM MANAGEMENT The Contactor shall provide a Program Manager to be responsible for all work performed under this contract. The Program Manager will be the primary point of contact for the Contracting Officer and designated Contracting Officer Representative (COR). The Program Manager will have resources and authority to ensure efficient and timely program execution and shall be the Contractor's focal point for all required program tasks. The Contractor's Program Manager will be prepared at all times to present and discuss the status of contract activities, requirements, and issues. The name of this person and the name of any alternate who shall act for the Contractor when the Program Manager is absent shall be submitted in writing to the Contracting Officer five (5) working days prior to the contract start date. During any absence of the Program Manager, only one (1) alternate shall serve as the Government contact point. The Program Manager and any designated alternates(s), shall have full authority to act for the Contractor on all contract matters relating to daily operation of this contract. The Program Manager shall keep the Contracting Officer (CO) and Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) informed of any performance issues, cost or financial concerns and potential problems that, if unresolved, will adversely affect the Contractor's performance, schedule or costs. The Program Manager shall take all appropriate measures to mitigate adverse impact to the contract and subsequently to the ACF. C.5.1.2. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT PLAN The Contractor shall provide a Program Management Plan (PMP) that fully documents its management approach for this contract. The Contractor shall update its PMP when changes to the required information change. At a minimum, the PMP shall: a) Provide information on the Contractor's management organization, internal management policies and procedures; b) Summarize how the Contractor will maintain relationships and conduct regular meetings and reviews with Government personnel related to the activities and deliverables of the Contract; c) Provide an organization chart of the contractor's organization to be used in performance of the contract and narrative describing how the Contractor will fully integrate the management of the elements of this contract and if the plan includes subcontractors, other than individual subcontractors, provide organizational information about the subcontractor and include subcontractor organizational elements in the project organizational chart; d) Describe how activities of subcontracts will be managed and organizational relationship will be maintained between the prime and subcontractors and methods of requirement flow-down and activity progress reporting back to the prime Contractor; e) Describe the: Contractor's approach to selecting subcontractor(s) and maintaining the quality of products produced by subcontractors(s); subcontractor's role under the contract, its relationship to the contractor, and its experience (over the past three (3) years at a minimum); and any subcontractor independent verification and validation process; f) Identify key technical and management personnel who will be assigned to the contract; g) Describe internal policies and procedures to be used in managing the contract and resources associated with the contract; h) Describe management and process for addressing work increases (spikes) and lulls as work priorities and schedules shift; i) Describe the approach and method for the identification, assessment, and mitigation of program risks including provisions for identifying risk areas, assessing risk factors, assigning appropriate resources to reduce risk factors, identifying and analyzing alternative actions available, identifying the most promising alternatives, and planning for implementation of risk reduction. C.5.1.3 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT SCHEDULES The contractor shall establish and maintain a "project management System" using its own tools and methodologies subject to review by the ACF/OHSEPR COR team. This project management tool should employ a highly successful set of program control, tools, techniques, and procedures, to include risk management, quality assurance, work breakdown structuring, contractor cadre database, and security management. This project management tool should also provide a toolbox of external control procedures, responsibilities, preparation tools, job aids, and templates designed to support the contract, the ACF/OHSEPR DCM management team, and task order at hand. The contractor's project management system shall include, but not limited to the following areas: 1. Contractors cadre database to include names, dates available for deployment, position, organization, resumes, deployment area of operation, and DCM team roles for which the individual is qualified (e.g., case manage, case management supervisor, specialist role) 2. Financial database to include invoicing, budgets, timesheets, cost control and procedures. 3. Contractors Task Management, to include deployments, schedules, locations, etc. 4. Training schedules to include date, times, instructional personnel, locations, and type of training. For work performed under the contract, the Contractor shall be required to develop and maintain a schedule. The Contractor shall provide sufficient detail to demonstrate that all sections of the work are appropriately resourced, thoroughly planned, and proceeding according to requirements. Schedule(s) shall identify subordinate-tier activities, dependencies between activities, and milestones required to demonstrate successful completion of projects. The schedule(s) shall identify the exit criteria required to satisfy milestone requirements that enable the Contractor to proceed with follow-on activities. The schedule(s) shall be base-lined. Schedule updates shall be made frequently, or as designated by the COR. Changes to scheduled baseline milestones must be documented by the Contractor and formally authorized by HHS or its designee. C.6.0 SPECIFIC TASKS Cadre and Infrastructure The contactor shall provide all labor, supervision, and materials to support all recruiting, screening, credentialing, training, and data tracking systems to establish and maintain a cadre of disaster case management assets to ensure the rapid availability of scalable staff assets based on local capacity and need for IDCM services. Based on the size and nature of the disaster, the ICDM services team(s) will surge to meet the needs of disaster survivors. The contractor shall have a minimum of ninety (90) trained and qualified disaster case management assets available to deploy throughout the CONUS and OCONUS as directed by ACF. The contractor is expected to maintain 90 total assets available for immediate response at any given time. The contractor is responsible for obtaining a cadre of trained personnel that includes, but is not limited to a DCM National Contract Team Leaders, Deputy DCM National Contract Team Leaders, Disaster Case Management Supervisors, Disaster Case Managers, Community Coordination Specialists, Logistics/Administration Specialist, Financial Coordinators, Database Specialists, and Training Specialists. Qualified disaster case managers shall provide the initial triage and disaster case management services for a specified period ordinarily up to 135 days following program activation, allowing time for the local cadres or State IDCM program to be implemented. C.6.1 CREDENTIALING IDCM Credentialing: The Contractor shall credential all candidates as prescribed in the IDCM Recruitment Process Plan. The contractor shall also provide a credentialed candidate deployment roster list that is updated on a monthly basis. This list should include names, organizations, locations, and positions in which the individual is qualified to fill. Readily deployable individuals are defined as screened, credentialed, and trained; individuals who have been credentialed but not yet trained should not be considered as readily deployable. When updates are required, the contractor shall submit the updated list to the ACDF/OHSEPR COR and/or management Staff for review. C.6.2 TRAINING The Contractor shall continue the comprehensive IDCM training program as prescribed in the IDCM Recruitment Process Plan. The Contractor shall update the plan as necessary. When updates are required, the contractor shall submit the revised plan to the Government for review and approval. Once approved, the contractor shall follow the approved plan as directed by the contract. 1. The Contractor shall provide a comprehensive and ongoing immediate disaster case management training course, which includes maintaining and implementing training based on the ACF guidance and the established ACF training curriculum. Training materials will be version controlled, reviewed, and accepted by the COR before authorized for use. The contractor shall be responsible for providing qualified instructors (i.e. DCM subject matter experts) who are able to facilitate training and credential disaster case management assets. This includes: a) Providing instructors who are qualified to teach the IDCM courses b) Arranging all training activities, such as: space, travel, registration, equipment, logistics, etc. c) Developing a template of training materials to the COR for review and approval 30 business days prior to planned training date. The COR shall provide feedback within five (5) business days. The Contractor shall incorporate all feedback into the training materials template(s) within five (5) business days of receipt of feedback. Each revision shall adhere to this timeline. d) Offering training across multiple mediums including Web and traditional in-class training and any other training medium as needed to conduct comprehensive training across multiple location sites and times. e) Maintaining training materials, including ensuring training materials are version controlled, reviewed, and accepted by the COR before issuance. f) Maintaining training records for all participants. 2. The contractor shall submit a training schedule that outlines all activities necessary for ensuring a trained cadre is able to deploy as required. C.6.3 RECRUITING The Contractor shall recruit candidates as prescribed in the IDCM Recruitment Process Plan. The Contractor shall update the plan as necessary when new personnel are added to the deployment cadre when updates are required, the contractor shall submit the revised plan to the Government for approval. Once approved, the contractor shall follow the approved plan. 1. The Contractor shall maintain records and report on the number of qualified, trained and screened staff. The contractor will provide basic employment screening and other credentialing requirements as directed by ACF in accordance with the HSPD-12 guidelines. C.6.4 TRACKING AND DATABASE ACTIVITIES IDCM Database - The Contractor shall maintain the established electronic disaster case management database. Utilizing the established database, the contractor shall monitor, track, report, and manage all phases of recruiting, screening, credentialing and training associated with the disaster case management cadre. The immediate disaster case management database shall be Microsoft compliant or meet the latest agency information technology standard for accessing or sharing a database including reporting requirements. The government shall have full administrative rights, intellectual property rights, and use and ownership of the disaster case management database. 1. The Contractor shall maintain all training and credentialing records. C.6.5 IDCM SCREENING The Contractor shall screen all candidates as prescribed in the IDCM Recruitment Process Plan. The contractor shall update the plan as necessary. When updates are required, the contractor shall submit the revised plan to the Government for review and approval. Once approved, the contractor shall follow the approved plan for conducting and maintaining IDCM operations. C.6.6 DEPLOYMENT OF QUALIFIED PERSONNEL The Contractor shall, upon notification, deploy disaster case managers in sufficient numbers to meet immediate disaster requirements (within 72 hours). The contractor is required to deploy credentialed disaster case management assets based on the nature and size of the disaster as identified in the ACF/FEMA assessment from the cadre if a disaster affects multiple regions. The Contractor shall deploy disaster case management assets from the cadre to the region.