In a new paper by PCG’s Stacey Priest and Jennifer MacBlane, the authors explore how states are implementing targeted recruitment and retention strategies to cultivate and maintain a pool of qualified foster parents needed to support the growing number of children entering foster care across the country each year.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 30 percent of the 15.3 million Americans of working age (between ages 16 and 64) with disabilities participated in the workforce in 2018, compared with 74 percent of Americans without a disability. An Accenture analysis of the research suggests that shifting recruitment efforts to focus on disability inclusion would therefore provide companies with access to a new talent pool of more than 10.7 million people.

For public sector health and human services agencies, change is inevitable – whether it is driven by new legislation, administration turnover, or just continuous process improvement of government programs. One such change in legislation on PCG’s mind is the 2018 Farm Bill, passed by Congress and signed by the President in December 2018, which reauthorizes SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) through 2023.  

In her latest blog post on the current Comprehensive Child Welfare Information Systems (CCWIS) landscape, Carole Hussey of Public Consulting Group digs into one of the biggest concerns that has been raised so far: the lack of innovation in the Requests for Procurement (RFPs) and ultimately the solutions that are being implemented.