Support for the Child and Family Services Reviews

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) intends to negotiate a sole source award with JBS International, Inc., 5515 Security Lane, Ste 800, North Bethesda, MD 20852 to provide additional support for the Child and Family Services Reviews. This is not a request for a proposal; a solicitation document will not be issued and proposals will not be requested. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541990 and the business size standard is $14.0 million. The anticipated award date is September 30, 2014 and the Period of Performance will be 12 months. The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Children's Bureau (CB) is responsible for reviewing State agencies' child welfare programs and services on a periodic basis. States are required to submit a self-evaluative Statewide Assessment to the CB prior to the States' Child and Family Services Review (CFSR). The CFSRs are designed to examine the outcomes of services provided to children and families, as well as, systemic factors that affect the ability of State agencies to achieve positive outcomes for children and families. The CFSRs cover a wide range of federally funded child welfare programs and services. The overall goal of the CFSRs is to assist States in improving child welfare services and the outcomes for families and children who receive the services by identifying the strengths and needs within State programs and those areas where technical assistance could lead to program improvements. Other purposes of the review strategy include the following: - Linking the CFSRs to existing Children's Bureau Regional Office and States joint planning, technical assistance and program improvement processes; - Assisting States in becoming more self-evaluating over time; - Ensuring that Federal funds are spent in accordance with Federal statute, regulation and policy; - Collecting data that will inform national policy; - Identifying best practices that can be emulated across the country; - Identifying State training and technical assistance needs and providing access to assistance needed to implement a program improvement plan (PIP); and - Providing timely and specific feedback to States that is directly related to program performance and outcomes. Outcomes are assessed for each State through a Statewide Assessment and an onsite review process. The outcomes and goals are as follows: - Safety Outcome 1: Children are, first and foremost, protected from abuse and neglect. - Safety Outcome 2: Children are safely maintained in their homes whenever possible and appropriate. - Permanency Outcome 1: Children have permanency and stability in their living situations. - Permanency Outcome 2: The continuity of family relationships and connection is preserved for children. - Well-Being Outcome 1: Families have enhanced capacity to provide for their children's needs. - Well-Being Outcome 2: Children receive appropriate services to meet their educational needs. - Well-Being Outcome 3: Children receive adequate services to meet their physical and mental/behavioral health needs. A CFSR team shall be assigned to each State and consist of individuals representing the Children's Bureau Central and Regional Offices, the State agency under review, various State stakeholders from the State being reviewed and cross-State participants, including non-Federal consultant reviewers. The consultant reviewers chosen for each review will be national child welfare professionals and experts. Just recently the CB was directed to resume the Child and Family Services Reviews in a way similar to its prior round beginning in next fiscal year. To accomplish this, CB has to develop the program, provide training and related logistical support to states immediately, most of which is provided by this contractor. States are liable for financial penalties if they do not perform well on CFSRs and part of States' successful performance is reliant on getting timely and quality information and service from CB on implementation tasks associated with the reviews. The contractor is the only contractor with the systems that are needed in place to be ready to perform this work for the upcoming year seamlessly so that we can ensure that the reviews occur as required and do not jeopardize states financially through no fault of their own. Since the Reviews begin early next year (2015) the timing of the work that needs to be done to roll out the next round of reviews must be seamless between the current contract and the new contract. There needs to be continuous productive activity as of and through September 30 in order to meet our statutory and regulatory mandates under section 1123A of the Act and 45 CFR 1355.35 - 39. The work cannot be turned over to another contractor at this time primarily because the current tasks are being fulfilled pursuant to confidential terms set by the CB, program development work and implementation are being performed on an aggressively accelerated schedule, and the CB and the contractor have no additional capacity to simultaneously transition the work conducted and systems currently held by contractor to another source at the same time that there is an expectation to perform the work. This is not a solicitation for competitive proposals. Responsible sources may submit a capability statement, which shall be considered by the agency. Submissions should be emailed to the Contract Specialist, Fred Thomas, Jr. at Frederick.Thomas@psc.hhs.gov by 1:00PM, EST, May 1, 2014.