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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 04281987 - IO.3 To BOARD OF SUPERVISORS FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE Contra April 27 , 1987 Costa DATE: County Child Care Resource and SUBJECT: Referral Program SPECIFIC REQUESTS) OR RECOMMENDATION(.S) & BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Award the child care resource and referral. program to the Contra Costa Children' s Council, subject to the Finance Committee' s ability to identify funds for the program. 2. Authorize the Director of Personnel to negotiate a contract with the Children' s Council and return it to the Board through the Finance Committee. 3 . Request the County Administrator to review the County' s existing contract( s) with the Children' s Council to determine the extent to which the proposed resource and referral program for County employees can be funded by amending the existing contracts with the Children' s Council and report his findings and recommendations to the Finance Committee. 0 4 . Request the County Administrator and Director of Personnel to comment to the Finance Committee on the long-term cost implications of providing a subsidy to County employees for part of their' child care expenses. o 5 . Authorize the Director of Personnel to develop a dependent care assistance program under which County employees can reduce their gross taxable income by the amount of their child care expenses, and to develop a sick child care program which would provide needed child care for mildly ill children. Both reports should be forwarded to our Committee for review as they are developed. BACKGROUND: On January 13 , 1987, the 1986 Internal Operations Committee ( Supervisors Fanden and McPeak) reported to the Board recommending that the Director of Personnel distribute an RFP for a County employee child care resource and referral program to all potential bidders, and report the results of the RFP to our Committee. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: X YES SIGNATURE: _ RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE X APPROVE OTHER > ------7 /aft /ate , SIGNATURE s : ncy d::]F�a�hdenp Tom Torlakson ACTION OF BOARD ON Anril 28, 1987 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS (ABSENTS AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. County Administrator April 28, 1987 cc: Personnel Director ATTESTED Joan Kelle,Y, Children's Council PHIL BATCHELOR, CLERK OF THE BOARD OF Social Services Director SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Finance Committee Y ,DEPUTY M382/7-83 Page 2 On April 27, 1987 , the Director of personnel reported to our Committee on the results of the RFP. A copy of his report is attached. The Personnel Department has identified that County employees have 2000 children under the age of 11 . The proposal from the Children' s Council would provide personalized assistance to County employees in locating appropriate child care. Whenever possible, this will include a referral to three separate resources, field visits to all day care resources on a quarterly basis, and follow up with each employee who has requested a referral to insure that they are satisfied with the resources to which they were referred. Currently, the Children' s Council is only able to do follow-up calls on 100 of the individuals who request referrals, and they are unable to conduct regular field visits of the facilities being used as referrals. While our Committee believes that the proposed resource and referral program would be very helpful to County employees, it is clear that there are no readily available resources to fund the $72, 000 annual cost for the program; hence, the request that the Board refer this aspect of the proposed program to the Board' s Finance Committee. Our Committee also believes that there may be a way to amend the County' s existing contract with the Children' s Council to cover some of the services proposed in this program, thereby reducing the cost of the program. We believe the Finance Committee should look into this aspect of the program as well as what long-term or "spin-off" consequences there may be to beginning to underwrite even a portion of the child care costs of County employees. The Director of Personnel is also presently drafting a sick leave policy which will assist the County in managing the use of sick leave by County employees. A significant amount -of employee sick leave is currently used to stay at home with children when they are ill and cannot be cared for in the normal child day care facility, or day care home. We believe that significant productivity increases can be achieved if we had a program which provided a place where ill children could be cared for, thus allowing the child' s parent to continue to work. We are eventually also going to be interested in looking at the extent to which providing day care to employees, which is convenient to the employee' s home or office, will assist our TSM program by reducing commute mileage. We also believe that providing appropriate supervision for children after school reduces the chance that unsupervised children will get in trouble and start down the path of juvenile delinquency. Our Committee believes that assisting County employees to meet their child care needs is consistent with the Board' s emphasis on prevention programs and increased productivity. We, therefore, have made the above recommendations and urge their approval by the full Board. Contra Personnel Department Administration Bldg. Costa 651 Pine Street County Martinez, California 94553-1292 DATE: April 23, 1987 TO: Internal Operations Committee FROM: Harry D. Cisterman, Director of Per Cel Kim Franklin, Administrative Aide SUBJECT: Child Care Resource and Referral Program BACKGROUND Following the meeting on November 24, 1986, the Internal Operations Comm- ittee directed staff to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide child care resource and referral services to County employees. The core service of this program is to help parents find child care which meets their personal needs. By developing and maintaining an updated file of child care programs, this service can help direct parent employees to programs which are convenient for them. In addition to this role, the program will provide a wide range of parent education services, and support services to existing and potential child care providers. A legal notice announcing the RFP was posted in 3 local newspapers: the Contra Costa Times, West County Times, and the Oakland Tribune. As of the closing date, 4 proposals were submitted from the following agencies: Child Care Alliance, Contra Costa Children's Council , Contra Costa County Commu- nity Services Department, and the Music Research Institute. The purpose of this report is to summarize the evaluation of the proposals and to make a recommendation for contract award. PROCEDURE The two-phase process of the proposal evaluation is discussed below: I. The four proposals were examined and evaluated by a private child care consultant. This first phase of the evaluation process encompassed six areas: - Cost - Program objectives - Program monitoring and evaluation plan - Budget plan - Operational scope - Program Methodology Internal Operations Committee (2) April 23, 1987 II . In addition to the initial screening an interview was conducted on April 16, 1987. The bidders were requested to make a short presentation and were asked a series of questions by a 3 member panel . Present on the panel were Eileen Bitten, Manager-Employment Programs, Frank Puglisi , Assistant Director of Health Services, and Paul Proett, Consultant. The results of the two phases of the evaluations were combined and each agency received a final ranking. FINDINGS The proposals are listed in the order of their ranking. A brief narrative and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal follows. CONTRA COSTA CHILDREN'S COUNCIL Cost Annual fee: $72,000 All service needs are addressed in detail . Several services are already being performed by this agency (providing referrals, disseminating infor- mation on classes, communicating with other resource and referral agencies) , although the agency has declined to negotiate a sliding fee scale with providers. Plans are provided for on-going client evaluation and overall program evaluation. The agency gives evidence of qualified financial exper- tise and diversified sources of funding.The agency staff appears to be well qualified to provide the desired services. Physical facilities and equipment appear to be adequate. Strengths - Experience - The agency has a developed database of child care providers. - The Children's Council has already negotiated a relat=ionship with outside resource and referral agencies. CHILD CARE ALLIANCE Cost Annual cost: $138,036 Service needs are adequately addressed although the agency has declined to negotiate a sliding fee scale with providers, and does not explain the method of negotiation with outside resource and referral agencies. The proposal includes a detailed time phased workplan for the development and implementation of the program. Additional services include Workshops for Working Parents, a series of noontime seminars. The agency has performed similar services on a smaller scale and appears to understand the qualifi- cations needed to implement and carry out the program. Internal Operations Committee -3- April 23, 1987 Strengths - Agency has strong community ties. - Proposal shows evidence of strong management skills. Weaknesses - Cost - Slow implementation of program. COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT Cost Start up costs: $30,000 Annual cost: $48,500 All service needs are addressed. Additional services to be provided include; diagnostic sessions for children with special needs, and consultation and advice to providers. The agency plans to use client satisfaction surveys as part of their monitoring and evaluation plan. Agency appears to have adequate personnel , facilities, and equipment to provide services. Strengths - Their approach of handling some referrals onsite adds, a personal quality to the program. Weaknesses - Agency has had little experience in delivering the services required. - Lacks knowledge about negotiating relationships with outside resource and referral agencies. - Proposal is unclear in regard to dedicated staff time to program. MUSIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE Cost Implementation stage (3 months) : $7,738 Monthly fee: $2,000 The budgeted amount does not seem sufficient to provide the services req- uired. Program reiterates the service needs as stated in the RFP. A very general plan for development and implementation of the required and some additional services is included. There is no systematic plan to track the progress of each referral . A yearly evaluation of the program would be made by an outside consultant. No information is provide on the agency's fiscal procedures. Personnel , facilities, and equipment available do not appear to be adequate to provide the services stated in the RFP. Internal Operations Committee (4) April 23,1987 Strengths - The agency has had experience delivering resource information in other subject areas. Weaknesses - The agency has little technical knowledge of child care referrals or the current child care community. - The agency does not have the resources to provide the program services. RECOMMENDATION Based on the evaluation it is recommended that the Contra Costa Children's Council receive the contract award because of outstanding qualifications in the the following areas. 1. Their existing database of child care providers will lower overall program costs and also help expedite start up time for the program. 2. The Children's Council belongs to a resource and referral network and therefore may be more effectively locate child care services for employees who reside outside the county. 3. The Children's Council has experience in providing these services as shown in their Bishop Ranch project. It is further recommended that the County investigate additional child care programs to supplement the resource and referral program. 1. Develop and administer a dependant care assistance program. This type of program would allow eligible County employees to identify a portion of their salary for dependent care purposes thereby reducing their gross taxable income by that amount or; 2. Sick Child Care Program. Contract with an existing day care program or have the County Health Department administer a "sick bay" for mildly ill children at locations in East, West, and Central County. HDC/kf:af