Policy and Practice April 2019

King County, Washington, wanted a game changer.

innovation, increase collaboration with providers, and build the capacity of human services leaders to measure outcomes and steer public investments toward the most effective approaches. With the support of the Kresge Foundation, Results for America gathered examples of how cities, counties, and states across the country have accelerated their governments’ push toward outcomes-focused con- tracting. We bundled these ideas together into the What Works Toolkit, 2 a framework for understanding the policies and practices necessary to move state and local government agencies and human services providers from compliance-focused to outcomes- focused contracting. While the approaches varied, we identified five key recommendations to help human services leaders build a more results-driven culture: Step 1: Gather Feedback and Focus on Outcomes As King County learned, the first step toward a more results-driven approach is to engage with human services providers, service recipients, and com- munity groups to gather feedback, define desired results, and establish outcome goals for each contract. A good start is to identify which con- tracts are approaching a renewal or are central to your local or state govern- ment’s priority goals. Many cities and counties are getting creative about opening new and better channels of communication with service providers and other key stakeholders. In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio created the Nonprofit Resiliency Committee, 3 which was comprised of city staff and providers, coalitions, academia, and philanthro- pies. The committee was charged with identifying, designing, and promoting solutions to increase collaboration between the city and the nonprofit

For years, the county’s health and human services contracting had followed a familiar pattern: most gov- ernment-funded services were focused on crisis intervention rather than pre- vention. Funding generally went to larger providers rather than smaller community-based organizations that typically served the county’s historically underrepresented residents. And in many cases, the county lacked data on which services worked best for residents. “We just weren’t achieving the kinds of outcomes we wanted for children in our community,” said Carrie S. Cihak, King County’s Chief of Policy. In 2014, the county reinvented its approach. It started with a broad com- munity engagement strategy that included events like “community cafés,” surveys, and interviews with residents and providers to build alignment around shared goals. “We started with the outcomes we wanted to achieve for children and youth in the county: babies being born healthy, the journey to adulthood being healthy and safe, and building a supportive environment in our community around kids,” Cihak said. When county voters in 2015 passed the Best Starts for Kids initiative—which generates an average of $65 million a year to help achieve these outcomes— County Executive Dow Constantine and his team had already laid the foundations for a new contracting system. 1 It would focus on increasing equity, strengthening partnerships with community-based providers, and gathering rigorous evidence of impact to track whether the county was making progress toward key goals. The What Works Toolkit King County is part of a growing movement of local and state govern- ments that are shaking up decades-old procurement practices, shifting away from a compliance-focused model toward new approaches that incentivize

King County residents in Powell Barnett Park in Seattle's Central District.

human services sector. Through the initiative, the city created the Guide to Collaborative Communications with Human Services Providers 4 with the goal of broadening engagement with nonprofit experts, consistent with the city’s procurement policy for safe- guarding open competition. As the New York City guide illustrates, the best conversations begin well before the issuance of a request for proposal (RFP) for services. By using pre-pro- posal conferences with providers, letters of interest, or requests for information, government agencies can validate community needs, align expectations, and collaboratively develop outcomes. Many of these tools and templates are included in a new report that Results for America produced with Project Evident, An RFI Guide: How Requests for Information Can Improve Government Human Services Contracting . 5 Most important, these early discus- sions help government leaders and service providers develop a shared sense of mission. Some policymakers are taking the next step by building these expectations right into their con- tracts. For example, Washington, DC’s Procurement Practices Reform Act of

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April 2019   Policy&Practice