Assessing Their Implications for the Child Welfare Field
and for Federal Child Welfare Programs
This project is available on the Internet at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/CWPI/
Background
During the 1990s, a number of state and local child welfare agencies began
experimenting with privatization of child welfare services in order to improve
performance and reduce costs. Models of privatization vary across the
country, from statewide reforms to more limited initiatives. States
continue to look for best practice measures to fuse programmatic and fiscal
reforms. However, because little sound research and few outcome evaluations
have been conducted on these initiatives, little information on effective
practices and models is available.
To assist state and local child welfare policymakers who are
considering or implementing privatization reform,
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning
and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) undertook The Child Welfare
Privatization Initiatives Project (CWPI). This project developed
a series of topical papers drawing from the experience of child welfare and
other social services programs which have privatized services and is intended
to provide insights about factors that should be considered when approaching
or improving upon privatization efforts.
Publications
The following topical papers were produced under this contract:
-
Assessing Site Readiness: Considerations
about Transitioning to a Privatized Child Welfare System. This
paper assists child welfare administrators in thinking through key issues
about transitioning to a privatized system of service delivery. The
paper is organized around 12 questions that administrators need to ask themselves
when assessing the readiness of their site to undertake this
type of systems reform.
-
Program and Fiscal Design Elements of Child
Welfare Privatization Initiatives. This paper presents a range
of program and contracting models currently used by sites across the country
and explains how these models have evolved over time. It also provides
information about what has been learned to date about the challenges and
benefits of different approaches.
-
Evolving Roles of Public and Private Agencies
in Privatized Child Welfare Systems. This paper presents both
the challenges and lessons learned about transitioning from publicly to privately
delivered services. It provides examples of how states have divided
roles and responsibilities across systems once privatization occurs.
-
Evaluating Privatized Child Welfare
Programs: A Guide for Program Managers. This paper provides
state and local child welfare administrators a how to guide for
evaluating the effectiveness of their reforms. This includes establishing
policy relevant research questions appropriate to the initiative, determining
appropriate short and long term outcomes, identifying appropriate data, and
selecting the best outcome evaluation design.
-
Preparing Effective Contracts in Child
Welfare Systems. This paper describes what the field has learned
about developing contracts in child welfare and related social services including
writing clear expectations about services provision and performance standards,
billing and payment arrangements, and standards for reporting.
-
Ensuring Quality in Contracted Child Welfare
Services. This paper focuses on key responsibilities and challenges
that public agencies often face in effectively monitoring the organizations
with which they contract, including primary responsibility for different
areas of contract monitoring, information system needs, commonly used performance
measures, and agency appeal and grievance processes.
More Information
This project was carried out by a partnership between Planning and Learning
Technologies Inc. of Arlington, VA, and The Urban Institute of Washington,
DC. It builds on knowledge gained during a national needs assessment
of child welfare privatization efforts conducted for the Childrens
Bureaus Quality Improvement
Center for the Privatization of Child Welfare Services
(http://www.uky.edu/SocialWork/qicpcw/)
as well as research on privatization conducted in other closely related social
services
(http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/privatization-rpt03/).
To obtain a printed copy of any report, send the title and your mailing
information to:
Human Services Policy, Room 404E
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Av, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Fax: (202) 690-6562
Where to?
Top of Page
Home Pages:
Human Services Policy
(HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)
Last updated: 02/02/2009