Collaborative Procurement Questions

1. What are the outcome goals for this procurement?
2. How was community input used to define these outcome goals?
3. What is the identified target population?
4. What interventions address the target population’s challenges? Are these proven, promising, or not-yet-evaluated programs? Do these interventions address the foundational components that contribute to this challenge in the life, home, and community of the target population? What are the likely impacts and quantifiable measures if the intervention works as intended and the outcome goals are achieved?
5. What is the realistic timeframe for achieving these outcome goals?
6. How are the outcome goals aligned with similarly situated programs or contracts?
7. What support can the government provide to improve the human services providers’ likelihood of success (including referral streams, physical space, or other in-kind support)?

1. Does the budget cover the full cost to deliver the services? If not, what program requirements or activities will not be met due to fiscal constraints? If not, can the government suggest alternative revenue streams to address any funding gap?
2. Are there government guidelines or restrictions on use of funds that may interfere with service delivery?

1. Does the procurement process pose any barriers to achieving the outcome goals?
2. Are there redundant paperwork requirements, duplicative data collection requirements, or other barriers that can be removed in order to simplify the contracting process?
3. Can the government use a standardized contract with uniform provisions and timelines?
4. How much time is sufficient between the release of the RFI, the release of the RFP, and the response deadlines? How much time is needed to finalize implementation plans between the contract award and start date?

1. Does the procurement process engage a wide range of potential providers across various dimensions (size, geographic footprint, community connections, program models, experience)? Will the procurement-related outreach engage potential providers from underrepresented populations and those not currently within the government’s portfolio?
2. Does the procurement process consider providers’ demonstrated performance across key service domains, past experience in the area(s) of service, and evidence of effectiveness rather than, or in addition to, price per service?
3. Does the procurement process preference evidence-based interventions (such as extra points or a funding set-aside for proposed solutions with moderate or strong evidence of effectiveness)?³

³ For example, a change in the baseline rate of teen births could significantly impact a provider’s likelihood of hitting a teen birth rate outcome metric in a project that ties payment to outcomes.

1. Are the contracting provisions flexible enough to allow providers to build and strengthen evidence about what works, refine their service delivery model, or make other modi cations to better achieve the desired outcomes?
2. Can the government offer a multi-year contract (with relevant intermediate milestones) to allow for outcomes measurement and increased evidence building? If not, would a pilot period be a viable way to adjust the service delivery model, incorporate participant feedback, and inform a longer-term contract?
3. Are there broader policy reforms, waivers, or other changes to procedures, regulations, or laws which the government might consider making to increase the effectiveness of the service delivery model?
4. Are the contracting provisions flexible enough to mitigate any impact on the services under contract created by future changes in policy or practice?
5. Does the contracting structure allow the provider to expand programs that have generated evidence of success?

1. Will real time administrative data be shared with human services providers?
2. What data infrastructure or policies are necessary to allow for the real time sharing of administrative and other data?
3. What data will human services providers share with the government? Do human services providers have the systems and processes to collect this data?
4. Is the data collection (and cleaning) process conducive to tracking the key elements necessary to measure the implementation and results of the program?

1. Is there a process in place to address the impact of future changes to federal/state/local policy that could impact service provider’s ability to meet the outcome goals or metrics?
2. Is there a process in place to address the potential impact of future changes in the baseline incidence of an outcome across a target population that could make it more difficult for a provider to meet a contracted-for outcome metric?

1. Does the budget include the costs of continuous quality and program improvement, such as adapting and improving services over time to meet changing participant and human services provider needs?
2. If the budgeted funds do not include the costs of continuous program improvement, are there other public funds that can be blended or braided to support this function?
3. If the publicly budgeted funds do not include the costs of continuous quality and program improvement, what other resources are available (including for supporting collaboration, enhanced analytics, or data sharing with similar programs)?

1. Is there a plan in place to build and strengthen the evidence base about what works for which target population(s) and under what conditions?
2. How is the evaluation paid for? Does government cover all or most of the cost of the evaluation?
3. If the government cannot provide adequate funding for an evaluation, what other resources can it make available for a program evaluation (including data, expertise, staff support, connections to outside partners, and access to third party sources of funding or support)?