FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 26, 2016

CONTACT
Russ Reno, Communications and Legislative Services, (office) 402-471-8287 or (cell) 402-450-7318, or russ.reno@nebraska.gov

Lincoln – An agreement on a contract to continue to provide child welfare case management in Douglas and Sarpy counties has been reached by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Nebraska Families Collaborative (NFC).

“Discussions on the new contract were very constructive and both sides worked together to develop stronger outcomes for children and families,” said DHHS CEO Courtney Phillips. “We appreciate NFC’s commitment to families and willingness to include new approaches in the contract with this goal in mind.”

The one-year contract, effective July 1, 2016-June 30, 2017, is capped at $59,951,000, which is the same amount in the current contract.

“We came to this agreement more than three months before the end of the current contract which expires June 30th,” said Doug Weinberg, director of Children and Family Services. “The early resolution of this contract reflects the earnestness of everyone’s efforts to build on the previous work by DHHS and NFC to help children and families.”

“This is a strong indication of the high performance of our public-private partnership with the State of Nebraska,” said Dave Newell, president and CEO of Nebraska Families Collaborative. “We look forward to a continued partnership in the future.”

If actual annual expenditures by NFC are less than the total contract payments, the difference will be used for the identification and implementation of services such as preventing families’ involvement in the child welfare system, post-reunification programs, training and creating evidence-based programs to strengthen the child welfare system.

In addition, 10 percent of each monthly payment will be retained by DHHS and a portion will be available at the end of each quarter to NFC depending on the outcomes of two federal measures: permanence of the reunification of children with their family, and reduction of substantiated maltreatment.
 “This was a team effort,” Phillips said. “DHHS and NFC are both held to improved outcomes for children and families.”

As part of the new contract, DHHS and NFC have worked on a focused and collaborative initiative to improve the process of how and when families are connected to services when they need to keep their children safe.

“Having expedited access to the right services is critical to focusing our attention on preventing children from being removed from their home, and building the parental protective factors that keep children safe,” Weinberg said. “Input from staff, providers, county attorneys, judges, Probation and other key stakeholders has been very valuable and will ultimately assist both DHHS and NFC with improving outcomes for children and families served in Douglas and Sarpy counties.”

NFC uses the FAMCare case management software platform to manage the data on the children and families they serve, as well as their entire network of service providers in Nebraska.