Walter R. McDonald & Associates Inc.(WRMA)'s greatest strength is the extensive hands-on, nationwide experience of its senior professional staff, and the resulting, exceptionally high quality managerial and technical consulting services that these professionals are able to provide.

Support Preparation of a Report on State Performance in Achieving Outcomes in Child Welfare and a Report to Congress on Performance-Based Financial Incentives in Child Welfare   The Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contracted with WRMA to assist with compliance of title IV of the Social Security Act, as amended, which requires the Secretary of HHS to: Develop a set of outcome measures to be used to assess the performance of State child welfare programs Develop a system for rating the performance of States with respect to the outcome measures; and Make recommendations regarding a performance-based incentive system under parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act. During the first year of the project, WRMA worked in conjunction with staff from the Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) and assembled a consultation group, conducted meetings for consultation group members, and prepared working papers and reports on an as-needed basis. WRMA staff also assisted in developing and refining the outcome measures and various models of performance-based incentive systems and in analyzing the data to be used to assess the performance of State child welfare programs. During the second year, WRMA prepared a list of proposed outcomes, outcome measures, and context variables for ACYF's report to Congress; 2) analyzed national level data on a state-by-state basis, as it related to the outcome measures and variables; 3) worked with each State in understanding their reports and completing related tasks; 4) designed and implemented an outcome analysis data base; 5) analyzed the associated data; and 6) prepared briefing papers on key issues as they were identified. Over the course of the project, WRMA also prepared three Congressionally mandated reports for ACYF: a Draft Outcomes Report (for publication in the Federal Register); a Report to Congress on State Performance in Achieving Results on Child Welfare Outcomes; and a Report to Congress on a Performance-Based Incentive System for Child Welfare.

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