DSHS - Children's Administration - Family Support and Related Services

Family Support and Related Services

Important Update
March 13, 2013 - The RFP for Family Support and Related Services was rescinded on March 13, 2013. Children's Administration anticipates reissuing this procurement no later than December 31, 2013. For more information, read the letter from the Assistant Secretary.

Family Support and Related Services are the services and supports provided to families to keep children and youth safely at home and to more quickly achieve safe reunification or other permanency when children and youth must be placed away from their parents. Beginning December 2013, these services will be provided to families through network administrators under performance based contracts.

The creation of the network administrators' contracts for Family Support and Related Services is intended to improve child safety, child permanency, including reunification, and child well-being outcomes through the collaborative efforts of the department and contracted service providers, while supporting and complying with the state and federal Indian Child Welfare Acts. It is also intended to reform the delivery of services to children and families through creation of a flexible, accountable community-based system of care that utilizes performance-based contracting, maximizes the use of evidence-based, research-based, and promising practices, and expands the capacity of community-based agencies to leverage local funding and other resources to benefit children and families served by the department.

Categories of Family Support and Related Services must be identified by the Children's Administration (CA) by July 15, 2012. To assist in identifying these categories of service, CA is receiving input from CA caseworkers, Tribal representatives, parents formerly involved in the child welfare system, youth currently or previously in foster care, the exclusive employee bargaining representative (Washington Federation of State Employees), child welfare researchers, Washington State Institute for Public Policy, and other child welfare partners.

Children's Administration will use this input to identify the services and concrete resources families need to:

Reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect
Keep their children safely at home
Promote permanency more quickly, including facilitating and maintaining safe reunification

The clear description of what families most need, identification of how those services and resources will be administered and increased accountability will help us keep children safely at home, and if children are in out of home care, will help us safely return them to their families quickly.

There are two ways for child welfare partners to provide input into Family Support and Related Services:

Procurement Timeline

May 2012	Statewide meetings Two statewide meetings are being held for our child welfare partners to provide input on Family Support and Related Services. Read the letter sent to our partners View the meeting schedule
May - July 2012	Categories of Family Support and Related Services May-June 2012 - Children's Administration will consult with CA caseworkers, the Washington State Federation of State Employees, Tribes, veteran parents, youth, child welfare researchers, and Washington State Institute for Public Policy to help define the categories of Family Support and Related Services. July 13, 2012 - Categories of Family Support and Related Services are released: Service Array Description
August 2012	Statewide meetings Two statewide meetings were held with our child welfare partners to provide an update on work done to-date and gather input on key decisions to be made going forward in finalizing the procurement for Family Support and Related Services. Read the letter sent to our partners View the meeting schedule
October 2012	Request for Proposal (RFP) Draft A RFP draft has been distributed to our community partners with a chance to comment. Based upon input received, the final RFP may be revised before being released. September 28, 2012 - Coming October 15, 2012 - Release of the Draft RFP Read the notice sent to our partners October 15, 2012 - The Draft RFP is ready for review and comment: The Draft RFP for the performance based contract for Family Support and Related Services is now posted and ready for review and comment. All comments on this Draft RFP must be submitted using the electronic Comment Submission Form and following directions available on the DSHS Procurements website. Entities interested in responding to the final RFP are encouraged to submit a Letter of Interest, described in Section 6.2 of the Draft RFP. Draft RFP Letters of Interest - Received by DSHS is response to the DRAFT RFP - (Posted 11/15/12) DSHS Procurements website
January 2013	Issue RFP DSHS will issue a RFP in January for Family Support and Related Services under a performance based contract with network administrators. January 15, 2013 - The RFP for Family Support and Related Services has been released. View the RFP on the DSHS contracts page.
March 13, 2013	RFP Rescinded The RFP for Family Support and Related Services was rescinded on March 13, 2013. Children's Administration anticipates reissuing this procurement no later than December 31, 2013. For more information, read the letter from the Assistant Secretary.
April - June 2013	Public Meetings Children's Administration will hold public meeting(s) to discuss issues and gather input for the reissuance of the procurement.
December 2013	Issue RFP Children's Administration anticipates re-issuing the procurement by December 31, 2013.