Preparing Effective Contracts in Privatized Child Welfare Systems

In 2006, ASPE funded the Child Welfare Privatization Initiatives Project to provide information to state and local child welfare administrators who are considering or implementing privatization reforms. The project will produce six papers on a range of topics providing insights about factors that should be considered when approaching or improving upon privatization efforts. This fifth paper places current contracting issues in an historical context and describes the many important decisions that must be made carefully, and when possible inclusively, with the provider community during the procurement or contract renewal process. It provides examples of some of the decisions that must be made during pre-procurement planning to determine basic program components and described some of the lessons learned about preparing solicitations, selecting bidders, and executing contracts.