{"id":31829,"date":"2020-11-13T17:17:04","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T17:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caseyfamilyv2.wpengine.com\/new-hampshire-rfi-2\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T16:15:16","slug":"rfi-de-nuevo-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casey.org\/es\/new-hampshire-rfi\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00bfC\u00f3mo utiliz\u00f3 Nuevo Hampshire una Solicitud de Informaci\u00f3n para generar innovaciones en la programaci\u00f3n de prevenci\u00f3n?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Summary<\/h3>\n

Although child welfare agencies rarely use Requests for Information (RFIs), they are effective tools for improving services. This report shows how New Hampshire used an RFI to rapidly design better family support programs.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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By Sean Alexander, Project Leader, Scott Kleiman, Managing Director, and Jess Lanney, Assistant Director, Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab*<\/p>\n\n\n

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Requests for Information (RFIs) are underutilized tools available to public child welfare agencies seeking to add new services or change the service mix already in place to support children and families. Before agencies go out for bids with a formal procurement, RFIs offer a structured way to solicit community input on new innovations, identify best practices and locally-driven solutions, bring to light any unrecognized challenges to service delivery, and signal changes in the agency’s strategic direction.<\/p>\n

This strategy brief describes how New Hampshire used an RFI to rapidly gather community and provider input to shape the design of the state’s new child welfare prevention service array.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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An opportunity to transform<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

The number of children with child protection cases who entered out of home care in New Hampshire increased by more than 75% between state fiscal years 2014 and 2018<\/a>, one of the largest increases in the country over this time period. This trend elevated the need for the state to enhance the mix and availability of family strengthening services that could enable more children and their families to safely stay together.<\/p>\n

In 2019, the state Legislature authorized $53 million in new funding<\/a> to expand and improve the services available to New Hampshire families over the following two years. This investment offered New Hampshire the opportunity to accelerate the buildout of evidence-based programs focused on preventing children from entering foster care, which would be necessary for the state to later access federal match funding offered through the 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act<\/a> (Family First).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The need for service innovation<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

New Hampshire’s focus on expanding child welfare prevention services reflected a growing national trend, in which states across the country are planning reforms that aim to shift child welfare spending toward earlier interventions. By 2022, Family First will be providing more than $180 million a year<\/a> to support preventative investments by state and local governments. Many states plan to use Family First as a catalyst for transforming their child- and family-serving systems from a primarily reactive posture, in which the child protection agency intervenes only after harm has occurred, to one where upstream supports from community-based programs can prevent children from experiencing harm in the first place.<\/p>\n

In New Hampshire, several challenges with the service array funded by the state’s Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) contributed to the concerning increase in the numbers of children entering foster care. First, the types of services available did not meet the evolving needs of the families. For example, 80% of allegations reported to DCYF were for neglect, which is linked to the effects of poverty – yet few services offered concrete supports that could help families address economic instability. Additionally, some services were unavailable in the state’s rural communities, and few services were focused on preventing entry into foster care. Second, many services were underfunded, making it difficult for providers to reliably operate their programs. Last, quality standards were inconsistent across programs and some services did not align with the national best practices that would be required for the state to access federal reimbursement. DCYF had little experience engaging community organizations in its planning process and many providers were worried that they might be left behind as the agency sought reforms.<\/p>\n

DCYF recognized that the success of new investments in child welfare prevention programming required substantially more innovation in the program models offered in the state. Many existing programs lacked a robust evidence base, signaling that there were few off-the-shelf solutions that could be implemented without further development and evaluation. For example, the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare<\/a> organizes child welfare programs by the quality of their evidence-backing. At the time New Hampshire was beginning to approach its redesign in 2019, the Clearinghouse had found only 32 of 479 rated child welfare programs well supported by existing research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Request for Information<\/b><\/h3>\n

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A Request for Information (RFI) is an informal solicitation of ideas, solutions, and\/or recommendations to assist in the development of a scope of work for a contract. RFIs are underutilized by public child welfare agencies seeking public input as they add new services or change the mix of services already in place.<\/p>\n

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Unlike Requests for Proposals (RFPs), RFIs do not result in any contracts being awarded but instead are used as fact-finding activities to gather information about the marketplace of services and providers. An RFI can help public child welfare leaders learn more about the challenges facing families in a community, enabling the department to better scope the needs and goals to be addressed by the contracted service. Community organizations and national service providers can describe their capacity to deliver potential solutions to meet the identified need(s), including introducing new approaches that may not have been previously considered. RFIs also can be valuable in signaling to providers a new strategic direction or identifying an agency’s key priorities for upcoming contracts, preparing potential providers to respond with bids that best meet the agency’s goals.<\/p>\n

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Issuing an RFI often is much quicker than releasing an RFP and typically must meet fewer compliance requirements. RFIs commonly include an introduction articulating the agency’s purpose and vision for redesigned services, a limited set of optional questions for respondents to address, and instructions for how to submit responses. Many highly effective RFIs are as short as a few pages.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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A new approach for gathering community input<\/h2>\n \n \n \n

New Hampshire wanted to use its service redesign to spur innovation by providers, particularly around programs designed to strengthen vulnerable families and prevent children from experiencing maltreatment in the first place. The agency, like most others in the country, funded community provider organizations to deliver direct services to families referred by agency caseworkers. With the newly appropriated funds, the agency sought to enter into contracts with service providers that expanded the range of programming available so that more families that came to DCYF’s attention received services that could enable them to safely stay together.<\/p>\n