If you invest in something, you want to know more than whether or not the transaction went through \u2013 you want to know how it\u2019s performing over time. Child welfare service providers also want to know how the families they serve improve over time, but these long-term details are nearly impossible to track with the systems currently in place. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Until now.<\/p>\n
In 2012, the legislature passed a bill that requires performance-based contracting (PBC) within child welfare. This means that services delivered to vulnerable children and families will be measured on whether they are moving the needle toward improving the lives of these children and families.<\/p>\n
More recently, the state budget allocated funding to the Empire Health Foundation to create an entity that would take on the management of PBC in Eastern Washington \u2013 just the first step in taking PBC statewide. Empire Health Foundation created Family Impact Network<\/a> (FIN) to take on this new role, which is slated to begin this summer. Naturally, as part of this new PBC model, there needs to be a technology and data collection system that can actually track outcomes for families. Since POC has a solid understanding of the child welfare system and has proven our data chops with the Washington State Child Well-Being Data Portal<\/a>, we have been tasked to create this new technology solution.<\/p>\n