FFS_BAFO.pdf

Solicitation Instructions Part 2

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SECTION 2-D: Offer Forms, Attachment 2-B Page 31 of 59 2 o n l i n e a t : A P P . A Z . g o v

Offer Forms

Request for Proposal Solicitation No. BPM006769

Parenting Time Services

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts 3003 N. Central Avenue, 20th Floor

Phoenix, AZ 85012

Attachment 2-B Offeror’s Experience and Capacity

The Offeror is cautioned that it is the Offeror's sole responsibility to submit information related to the evaluation categories and that the State of Arizona is under no obligation to solicit such information if it is not included with the Offeror's proposal. Failure of the Offeror to submit such information may cause an adverse impact on the evaluation of the Offeror's proposal. It is strongly discouraged for you to copy the Scope of Work in lieu of providing unique responses below.

OFFER MAY BE DETERMINED AS NON-RESPONSIVE IF ALL QUESTIONS ARE NOT ANSWERED FULLY.

Question 1: Describe the Entity’s experience providing parenting time services, including the number of years of experience, history and capability.

Offeror Response:

Family Focused Services has been providing in-home services on behalf of the Department for nearly 7 years (June 1, 2018). Laura Ormeroid, LMSW and Julie Cheetham, LBSW, Co-Founders, jointly have over 47 years of experience working with the child welfare system. We are adept at seeking and assessing information, building rapport, and ensuring that we provide a safe and trusting environment. During the 6 years 10 months we have been a contracted provider with AZDCS (Family Preservation, Family Connections, SENSE, Nurturing Parenting), we have successfully responded to more than 1,800 referrals and worked with all families willing to engage without any reassignment of referrals. In addition, both founders, along with various staff members, have participated in the SVO program as consumers - having been foster and now adoptive parents for many years in Arizona. While we have not previously held an SVO contract we are confident in our capability to meet the Department’s needs in providing SVO service to fidelity while supporting the co-parenting relationship between children’s families and placements.

Question 2: Provide a detailed plan of how your agency will be ready to serve cases on the go-live date, after award. The response shall at a minimum describe and provide a response for each of the following bullet points listed below:

Provide the anticipated number of referrals your agency expects to have the capacity to serve on the first day of contract implementation.

Does your agency anticipate an increase in capacity throughout the contract term? If yes, describe your plan for scaling up, including timelines, staffing, and resource allocation.

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SECTION 2-D: Offer Forms, Attachment 2-B Page 32 of 59 2

Solicitation No. BPM006769

Parenting Time Services

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts 3003 N. Central Avenue, 20th Floor

Phoenix, AZ 85012

Describe how your agency tracks and manages service capacity and the progression of referrals (cases) in real-time. What tools, systems, or processes do you use to ensure timely scheduling and service delivery?

Offeror Response:

This agency is well positioned to enact comprehensive Parenting Time Services on the go-live date thanks to our demonstrated history managing and serving a large caseload and our dedicated staff of workers. As of this date, there are approximately 130 potential clients on the waitlist. We will accommodate as many clients as necessary on this list to reduce the case burden, and plan to immediately onboard Parenting Time Case Aides upon award. On the go-live date our capacity will be based upon client location, and overall staffing availability. We intend initially to accept up to 45 referrals on the go live date, with a planned overall annual capacity of 500 cases; 400 cases per year in Maricopa County and 100 cases in Pinal County. Our agency has a proven track record with AZDCS and consistently meets our bid capacity, exceeding it when demand is high. We currently have 8 FTE and 3 PTE and plan to use that staff to support this contract in addition to the dedicated Parenting Time Case Aides we will onboard immediately upon award. We have a proven record of taking cases from the waitlist and we have not turned over any cases. As such, we will accommodate as many as 45 cases (35 Maricopa/10 Pinal) based upon availability on the go live date.

Our agency anticipates growth throughout the contract term to support the needs of the Department. Previously our agency has helped to reduce waitlists for other programs in both Maricopa and Pima counties prior to being awarded contracts in those areas. We strive to continue to leverage our staff to support other agencies and reduce the stress of waitlists for SVO and the burden of excess caseload on other agencies. We will adjust staffing in accordance with demand and the needs of the State with regard to this contract. We have an exceptional record for staff retention, and we do not anticipate turnover in the next calendar year. In the event of turnover, we have the capacity and recruiting pipeline to hire as needed. Our average time for hiring and onboarding new staff has historically been in the two-week range start to finish, we feel this is within very reasonable limits to increase our available capacity. Additionally, we have the capability to easily shift some workforce to another County for coverage while hiring and onboarding new staff.

We have developed agency specific tracking tools to track all referrals and ensure the highest standard of care. We have an internal electronic tracking system to monitor caseload, day and time availability, current open cases, and cases that have been closed. We monitor caseload by staff person, zip code and have a master tracking system that is reviewed weekly by the Director of Operations and administrative staff members. The Director of Operations also tracks staff caseload and ensures that no one has a caseload higher than full time hours allow.

Caseload is determined by family acuity. Acuity determines a weekly hourly quota by family (i.e. low acuity has fewer hours and higher acuity has more hours). Caseload is also determined by the family contact plan and transportation time with the goal that no case aid exceeds forty hours per week of scheduled work to allow for work/life balance. All of this allows us to be confident that we always know our open availability

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SECTION 2-D: Offer Forms, Attachment 2-B Page 33 of 59 2

Solicitation No. BPM006769

Parenting Time Services

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts 3003 N. Central Avenue, 20th Floor

Phoenix, AZ 85012 to accept new referrals, constantly review staffing needs, and be positive that we can meet the needs of the families we serve.

Question 3: Provide examples of challenges your agency has encountered in parenting time services and how you addressed them. Include challenges with maintaining contract capacity, if applicable.

Offeror Response:

Our agency held a Family Preservation contract during the COVID pandemic in 2020, a challenging time to be responsible for providing services to families needing assistance to either manage their children’s needs or to regain custody of their children. Thankfully, due to technology, Zoom and the very understanding Department we were able to think on our feet and use virtual visits as allowed. Our staff was already equipped with laptops and Zoom accounts so we went in search of masks and hand sanitizer to provide to staff for when in person visits could resume. Once we were again allowed to see people in their homes there was a period when many of our staff or their families contracted COVID, making it difficult for staff who was ill to see clients (the quarantine period back then was 2 weeks). We supported each other and showed up for our clients, covering each other’s visits, meeting parents and children at the door to observe that they were alright and finishing the visit virtually from their driveway while they were in the house. We did what we needed to do to continue providing services that families needed, and we didn’t give up until we could go back into homes. We all faced the challenges together and those families joined in and got what they needed. It was an important lesson in preparedness, and we hope not to have to ever experience another situation like it, but even if so feel like our staff has the equipment and technology along with the compassion, empathy and wherewithal to do it.

While we are not an existing SVO provider, we have a long history of maintaining our contracted capacity in all contracts with AZDCS; to date, we have had zero referrals reassigned.

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SECTION 2-D: Offer Forms, Attachment 2-B Page 34 of 59 2

Solicitation No. BPM006769

Parenting Time Services

State of Arizona Department of Child Safety

Office of Procurement & Contracts 3003 N. Central Avenue, 20th Floor

Phoenix, AZ 85012

Question 4: Describe your agency's experience in partnering with Child Welfare entities and/or other related fields, including examples that required collaboration and coordination.

Offeror Response:

This agency was initially awarded a Family Preservation contract including the SENSE component for Pinal County in 2018, and throughout the term of the contract we assisted in reducing the wait list for Pima and Maricopa Counties when there was a need. When the Family Preservation Contracts transitioned to Family Connections and NPP we were awarded the Family Connections portion for Pinal, Pima and Maricopa Counties. In late 2022 we added SENSE services in Pinal at the request of the Department, and in July 2022, again at the request of the Department, expanded our service array to include the Nurturing Parenting Program in Pinal and Pima Counties through FYE 2024. We maintain contracts for Family Connections in the three Urban counties, SENSE in Pinal County, all which necessitate constant collaboration with AZDCS at every level. From Case Specialist, Unit Supervisors, and Service Coordinators to Program Development, we are continually in a state of collaboration on many levels and have become very adept at coordination with many community partners. Our frequent communication with staff, along with 1:1 and group supervision, allow supervisors to have working knowledge of families on a per case basis, which contributes to our responsiveness when the Department has questions or issues arise. In addition, we are constantly coordinating with local and State agencies to meet the needs of our clients. We coordinate with TERROS/Families First, Behavioral Health agencies, substance use treatment providers, PCP’s, Healthy Families, WIC, AZIP, and our SENSE nurse to list a few. We continuously encourage our staff to seek out new partnerships to better serve our client population. We have an RN on staff providing SENSE nursing services who coordinates with the family’s medical providers as needed.

End of Attachment 2-B