Child Care Subsidy Case Management Services

Transcription

1 Child Care Subsidy Case Management Services Public Consulting Group

2 How can we help your organization promote improved outcomes for children? Our child care subsidy management services are based on a solid foundation of early childhood consulting best practices. We understand that long term child outcomes are dependent on Quality child care and early education Accessible child care resource and referral services for parents Longitudinal data tracking Transition of children from child care to K-12 education Effective distribution of child care funding We offer a holistic approach to early education and child care services focuses on efficiency and quality services. Why PCG for early education and child care subsidy consulting services? Our team has deep client-side experience and knowledge in the fields of early childhood and child welfare, allowing us to launch projects quickly, provide as-needed support, and introduce continuous quality improvement and best practices into our work. PCG also offers nearly three decades of experience in management consulting for state and municipal health and human services agencies. We have a pool of experienced consultants available to provide initial and ongoing support for project management, information technology systems, recruiting, training, business process reviews, requirements gathering, and continuous quality improvement. Our services include Child Care Subsidy Analysis and Management Early Education and Child Care Licensing and Monitoring IT Systems Design and Management Child Care Subsidy Case Management Child Care Subsidy Analysis & Management The myriad of funding sources for child care subsidies, including but not limited to the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDF), Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) Part C, Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting provide varied early childhood services to the most vulnerable children and families. PCG offers child care subsidy analysis to help your organization maximize funding and coordinate services to serve children and families in need of quality early education and child care programs. We offer child care market rate studies and rate setting assessment that provide valuable insight into child care subsidy rates and payment scales in your state. 1

3 Early Education and Child Care Licensing and Monitoring Early education and child care program licensing and monitoring is the basis for ensuring children are safe and healthy. Program safety and health are the foundations for quality early education and care. Differential monitoring of programs allows states to strategically identify programs in need of increased inspection or monitoring visits which allow for targeted technical assistance and increased compliance with health and safety standards. PCG offers strategic planning and implementation of solutions that will maximize your staff-to-program ratios to ensure licensors or inspectors are visiting programs frequently and ensuring the health and safety of young children. Case Study: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care, Differential Licensing Initiative In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care, PCG provided consulting services for an initiative to create a differential licensing model for licensing of early education and care programs across the state. PCG provided strategic guidance and action steps to improve monitoring business practices, including the development of an annual monitoring tool. The annual monitoring tools were developed for large group and school-aged child care centers, family child care providers, and residential and placement programs. PCG developed a pilot tool for annual monitoring visits that meet the specifications of the department s use of mobile technology; licensors will pilot the tools on tablets equipped with wireless internet connection. The two-month pilot will conclude with an evaluation of the tool and recommendations for adjustments, further testing, and full implementation. 2

4 IT System Design & Management With extensive knowledge of child care programs and practical experience in the operation of these programs, our staff has supported child care and early childhood agencies across the U.S. with projects such as child care rate design, early childhood IT systems design, agency strategic planning, and state-level financial model development. During the calendar year 2013, PCG handled more than 35,000 calls and s, maintained a call abandonment rate of under 1 percent, and accomplished an average queue time of under one minute. We have also managed quality improvement initiatives including strong licensing and monitoring policies, training and professional development for early childhood educators, and child care provider reimbursement rate analysis. As children transition into pre-school and on to K-12 education, we also help states develop, implement, and maintain longitudinal data systems to tract longterm child outcomes. Child care data systems allow state agencies to make informed data-driven decisions. Case Study: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania IT Strategy, Application Support, and Implementation Support In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PCG provides information technology consulting services to the Department of Public Welfare (DPW). This large scale and long-term project primarily supports two DPW human services enterprise information systems, PELICAN and HCSIS. PELICAN supports children s programs, including Child Care Works for subsidized child care services (Low Income, TANF, and General Assistance); Provider Certification for licensing and certifying compliance of child care providers; Early Learning Services for quality initiatives including PA Pre-K Counts, Keys to Quality/ Keystone STARS Integration, Pennsylvania s program for promoting quality child care services; and Client Self Service and Provider Search capabilities. PCG provides support to DPW in the areas of 1) strategy/business planning. This work includes vision support, business process redesign (BPR), and business process management (BPM); 2) application support. This work includes application modification/enhancements, business requirements document (BRD), requirements traceability, user acceptance testing, and business solutions life cycle; 3) implementation support services. This work includes implementation/field support, communications management, help desk services, and systems support. Child Care Subsidy Case Management We know child care subsidies are an essential support for children and families. Child care subsidies play a vital role for low-income families, providing financial support that allows parents to work or attend school or training while giving children the opportunity to receive care in an environment that fosters social and intellectual growth. We train our project staff members on the importance of high quality child care in order to connect their work to our larger mission of improving long term outcomes for children. Our customer service consistently exceeds expectations. PCG provides customer service that consistently exceeds expectations and meets performance requirements. Customer service specialists have access to current case status information to provide timely response to customer inquiries. Real-time status updates that resolve a client s question serve a dual purpose: They represent a high level of service and result in lower call volume by limiting repeat calls, thus supporting even quicker response times. 3

5 We are highly experienced in providing continuous quality improvement. As a management consulting firm with nearly three decades of public sector experience, our firm infuses continuous quality improvement initiatives into our child care subsidy management operations, allowing us to consistently evaluate our level of success with an emphasis on results. On an on-going basis, we monitor customer services quality, training and professional development opportunities, goal- driven staff incentives. We can also implement a business process review or redesign for clients seeking a change in their child care subsidy system. Case Study: County of San Diego Child Care Subsidy Case Management In San Diego County, PCG provides case management and eligibility determination services for subsidized child care for clients receiving CalWORKs cash assistance. As part of these services, PCG child care specialists approve child care services, determine eligibility, and maintain cases through changes in family circumstance or providers. Additionally, PCG s child care payments team collects attendance sheets, makes payments to providers, and maintains compliant family and child care provider case files. This project, awarded in June 2010, required a rapid start-up. The PCG team started office construction in June and confirmed program objectives and transition plans with the county. In July, the team hired 86 staff members, trained them, and conducted outreach to community partners. On August 2, 2010, the PCG El Cajon office opened to serve the county s East region job seekers, followed by the Chula Vista office on August 16, 2010, to serve the county s South region. From lease negotiations to insulation and dry-walling to elevator and restroom installation to phone and IT installations, the office build-out was completed in just 64 days. The job fair to staff our San Diego offices attracted more than 700 attendees in two days. The team sorted through more than 1,000 online applications, followed by a week of interviewing 150 candidates. Three cohorts of new employees were then trained over 18 days. In the first week of operation, PCG welcomed 516 clients. As a proven vendor of child care subsidy services and systems, we offer Subsidized child care operations Implementation of largescale operations in condensed timeframes Information technology support Call center capability Document management/ conversion Continuous quality Improvement Child care subject matter expertise 4

6 The research is clear: High quality child care and developmentally appropriate early learning experiences lead to improved school readiness* and long-term cost savings **. *The Abbot Preschool Program Longitudinal Effect Study, National Institute for Early Education Research, December, 2013 **No Child Left Behind: Subsidized Child Care and Children s Long- Run Outcomes, American Economic Journal, May, 2011 Did you know? Our PCG Education division helps schools, school districts, and state education agencies/ministries of education around the U.S., in Canada, and in Europe to promote student success, improve programs and processes, and optimize financial resources. PCG Education is leading U.S. provider of K-12 education data systems and helps educators make effective decisions that transform data into meaningful results. With first-hand data on student performance and outcomes, we understand how critical the early years are for later success. We help our clients link early childhood programs with K-12 education data to improve decision-making and promote student achievement. We design technology solutions that are used by educators to analyze and manage state and district data and student performance information. Our solutions help states understand and track student success, including literacy, individualized education planning, and behavior management. 5

7 Meet our team. Jill Reynolds leads the Early Childhood and Employment and Income Maintenance Services centers of excellence for PCG Human Services. Ms. Reynolds provides strategic leadership and support for projects in Welfare-to-Work, Workforce Development, Early intervention, Early Childhood and Child Care Services and food and nutrition programs. Her work centers around helping state and local clients achieve improved outcomes and fiscal performance in their human service programs. Ms. Reynolds has become a thought leader and national speaker in executive function and poverty intervention nationally. Ms. Reynolds received her Bachelor of Arts from Boston College and completed a Master s Degree in Public Administration at the University of Massachusetts. Nathan Grossman has expertise in subsidized child care, extensive experience in rolling out largescale implementations (e.g. recruiting, training), case management technology, and establishing relationships with community partners. Recently, Mr. Grossman has started-up two large-scale child care subsidy projects. In 2012, he implemented a new project with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare to assist in the planning and support of PELICAN and HCSIS, two enterprise IT systems that together manage well over $2 billion in state expenditures annually for early childhood services and home and community-based services, including child care subsidy programs. In 2010, he acted as Implementation Manager for the San Diego County child care subsidy program. Mr. Grossman recruited and trained roughly 20 supervisor, case worker, and payment clerk staff members to administer the program which serves more than 2,000 children annually. Previously, he led large scale operations and IT planning projects for various early childhood, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems in MA, NC, WI, and Washington, D.C. Jamie Kilpatrick brings over 18 years of experience working in the field of early childhood education and care from a state and local perspective. Mr. Kilpatrick manages engagements with early childhood and child care subsidy programs across the country including child care subsidy, child care market rates studies, early intervention fiscal management, early childhood quality initiatives, and statewide early childhood systems evaluation. In his prior experience as director of IDEA Early Childhood Services in the Tennessee Department of Education, Mr. Kilpatrick s role was to assist the State of Tennessee in addressing challenges such as federal compliance, stakeholder involvement, fiscal accountability concerns, and data structures. He has completed doctoral coursework in public administration at Tennessee State University s Institute for Public Service in Nashville and holds a master s degree in education from UT Martin and a bachelor s degree in sociology and a minor in psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also a 2008 graduate of the Tennessee s Government Executive Institute at the University of Tennessee s Institute for Public Service. Heather Gann brings nearly fifteen years of experience working in the field of early childhood education with a focus on quality improvement. With eight years of experience as a program director, Ms. Gann s implementation of quality improvement measures for her programs led to NAEYC accreditation (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and grew enrollment to be the largest early intervention program in the state of Tennessee. Her leadership extends beyond these programs to include the development of an online training system for state early childhood systems, and she has designed multiple technical assistance and quality improvement initiatives for early care and education providers. Currently, Ms. Gann serves on the Executive Board for the Tennessee state affiliate of NAEYC and on the editorial board for the state s professional journal, Tennessee s Children. Mrs. Gann s experiences in administration, program growth and development, research and practice, and her proven leadership within the field offer EEC expertise in the development of their Preschool Development Grant - Expansion Grant. Mrs. Gann holds a M.A. Ed. in education administration from Bethel University and a B.S. in special education from Bob Jones University. 6

8 PCG Human Services 148 State Street, Tenth Floor Boston, Massachusetts tel: (800) Copyright Public Consulting Group, Inc.