information for practice

This paper, the second in this technical assistance series, is based on knowledge gained from field experience, the literature on child welfare privatization and on prior research conducted by the Quality Improvement Center on the Privatization of Child Welfare Services funded by the Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It will describe variations and similarities in program and fiscal design elements of current privatization initiatives. As described in the first paper in this series, privatizing a service or a service system is complex and politically charged. System goals must be established, target populations selected, contract services and administrative systems designed, and contract payment methods tailored to the needs of the public agency and abilities of the private provider community. Each component must be aligned to meet agency goals. This paper presents a range of program and fiscal design elements for public agency administrators to consider, and highlights some lessons learned from state and private agency administrators that have privatized child welfare services.