SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- National Child Care Information and Training Resource Center
- Notice Date
- 12/22/2005
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519190
— All Other Information Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, Program Support Center, Division of Acquisition Management, Parklawn Building Room 5-101 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD, 20857
- ZIP Code
- 20857
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-NCCIC-2006
- Response Due
- 1/10/2006
- Archive Date
- 1/25/2006
- Description
- NATIONAL CHILD CARE INFORMATION AND TRAINING RESOURCE CENTER SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE PURPOSE The purpose of this SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE is to determine the availability of potential small businesses (e.g., veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business) that can provide operation of the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (known as NCCIC) on behalf of the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. BACKGROUND The Child Care Bureau (CCB) is responsible for administering the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) to help working low-income families achieve and maintain economic self-sufficiency, and to improve the overall quality of child care. The CCB is dedicated to promoting parental choice while enhancing the quality, affordability, and supply of child care services available for all families. Through its administration of the CCDF to States, Territories, and Tribes, the CCB assists low-income families to access quality child care that promotes safe and healthy environments and supports children?s physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development while parents are at work or participating in education or training that will enhance their employability. The CCB established the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC) in October 1994 for the purpose of providing comprehensive child care information resources and technical assistance services to CCDF Grantees and other child care stakeholders. The name of the Center is being changed in 2006 to the ?National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center? (NCCIC) to more accurately describe the breath and scope of the Center?s responsibilities. Today NCCIC is the largest national operation providing both on-site consulting to States and comprehensive child care information resources through a variety of media including Child Care Bulletins, briefs, and other original publications; and technical assistance services for State child care operations. The NCCIC provides a comprehensive child care web site with thousands of pages of child care related information, including an on-line library, annotated bibliographies, and resource lists related to scores of child care topics. In addition, NCCIC answers thousands of information requests annually via phone and email, along with hundreds of tailored requests to meet the needs of State CCDF grantees. Finally, NCCIC maintains a network of technical assistance specialists with State CCDF experience which has a technical assistance relationship with each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories to provide on-site and distance consulting and facilitation on all matters of CCDF administration and early childhood services coordination at the State and local levels. The client base for NCCIC services includes the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico; Tribes and Tribal Organizations; U.S. Territories of the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands; ACF's ten Regional Offices; the CCB staff; other Federal agencies; local governments; child care resource and referral agencies; child care organizations; child care providers; colleges and universities; parents; and members of the general public. MISSION The mission of the NCCIC is to develop capacity at the State, Regional, and National levels for the State and local initiatives to build the supply of affordable, high quality child care that meets the needs of working families through a varied delivery model. The mission is carried out by the establishment of an infrastructure of systems, mechanisms and processes that support knowledge-building and knowledge-transfer activities and that provide a consistently reliable nationwide foundation of high quality, research-based, child care and early education. NCCIC does this through a wide variety of information products and services, along with technical assistance on child care subsidy administration and quality improvement initiatives at the State level. The operation of the NCCIC is national in scope, and aligns with and supports ACF regional office efforts by responding to regional needs and supporting regional initiatives. REQUIREMENTS Firms submitting capability statements in response to this Sources Sought must be able to manage the contract and operate the NCCIC in-house, with only a limited use of CCB- approved consultants and/or subcontracts. Specifically, key personnel must be employees of the Contractor. All key positions must be filled by full-time employees. The minimum Contractor requirements are: Expert level knowledge of the CCDF legislation and regulations; Expert and operational knowledge and experience with administration of the CCDF at the State level, including knowledge and experience with key CCDF components such as: setting reimbursement rates (including methodologies for market rate surveys), setting and assessing parent co-payments, and tradeoffs associated with eligibility priorities. At a minimum, the State technical assistance staff needs to include staff who have direct experience at the State level with setting and administering these State CCDF policies; Strong operational knowledge and expertise on the full range of issues, services, and new directions within the child care field, including: subsidy administration, child care market dynamics, child care licensing, work force pressures, assessment and evaluation challenges, professional development issues, quality improvement, and school readiness; Strong operational knowledge of system-wide child care quality improvement initiatives including, but not limited to, quality rating systems, child care training registries, compensation and benefits initiatives, and the development of Statewide early learning guidelines and professional development systems; Strong knowledge base and demonstrated experience in the areas of community organization and partnership building, including partnerships among Federal agencies, State agencies, and other key groups; Extensive knowledge, skills, and nationally recognized expertise in the following areas: (a) In-depth and comprehensive knowledge of current research and best practices regarding the developmental, care, and support needs of infants, toddlers, children ages 3 to 13 and families; (b) Child Development, including infant/toddler and early childhood physical and mental health; social emotional, cognitive, and language development; (c) Children with disabilities; screening/assessment/desired outcomes; child care environments; multi-cultural practices; (d) Early Childhood program options and eligibility requirement variations; (e) A wide variety of early childhood funding streams and options for using them in a coordinated manner at the State and local level; (f) Community and State partnerships with Head Start, Early Head Start, the Early Intervention program under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Pre-Kindergarten programs, TANF, and health and nutrition organizations serving young children; (g) Knowledge of service issues related to diverse cultures, special needs children, and families living in poverty; and, (h) Capacity to help States form relationships with institutions of higher learning across the nation, leading to expanded professional development opportunities for the child care workforce. Ability to hire, retain, manage and supervise a highly trained and experienced multi-disciplinary staff, including librarians and information management specialists, technology experts, researchers, writers, editors, child care information specialists, and technical assistance field staff located in each of the ten ACF Regions (see immediate responsibilities for more information on staffing and level of effort); Expert knowledge, expertise, and capability to support the maximum use of technology and distance learning for ongoing communication, knowledge gathering, knowledge sharing, including demonstrated experience in establishing and maintaining very large, comprehensive web sites with a variety of databases, including an on-line library; Demonstrated experience with publications in the early care and education field, including adequate editorial and graphics support; and, Demonstrated experience with knowledge management, TA tracking, and communication systems, including the capacity to develop and maintain a comprehensive national communication and knowledge sharing system among the Federal staff, TA consultants, and CCB programs and stakeholders, using a variety of state-of-the-art channels, modalities and methods. IMMEDIATE CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES Firms submitting a capability statement in response to this Sources Sought must demonstrate their in-house capacity to be able to begin work immediately, including answering information requests, answering the toll-free hotline, responding to e-mail requests, delivering a full array of on-site and multi-media technical assistance, maintaining the NCCIC web site, and maintaining a level of effort AT LEAST EQUIVALENT to the level of effort of the previous year (Note: examples of the previous year?s level of effort are noted throughout this document. Reference the various statistics.) The Contractor also must be able to immediately provide additional field-based staff, as necessary, including topical experts, in order to provide State TA specialist assignments for each State. Specifically, at the time of award, the Contractor must have in place: A headquarters office (HQ), with on-site staff, within the Washington, DC metropolitan area; Full-time staff in all key positions, including Project Director, Deputy Director, and other key managers (information services manager, technology manager, technical assistance coordinator, etc.); An adequate number of information specialists who are knowledgeable about the child care field, including at least one who is bilingual in English and Spanish, to handle a call volume of 5,000-7,000 calls per year; A field technical assistance staff in place with demonstrable relationships with the key child care stakeholders, including State child care staff, in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories and ability to maintain current volume of over 700 State/Territory TA consultations per year; The ability to assume immediate responsibility for a library of over 18,000 volumes and on-line library of 8,000 entries, with approximately 60% available in full-text versions, with adequate qualified library staff to continue to build the library holdings (currently add over 100 items per month) and enhance usability; and, The ability to assume a website that receives approximately 400,000 visitor sessions per quarter, including an on-line library (see above) and several web-enabled databases with State information. In addition, the contractor must have the capacity to review and update all pages and information products on the web site on an ongoing basis. SUBMISSION INFORMATION Interested parties having the capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements may submit capability statements via e-mail to testabrook@psc.gov. CAPABILITY STATEMENTS MUST ADDRESS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OUTLINED ABOVE, ESPECIALLY AS NOTED IN THE SECTIONS TITLED REQUIREMENTS AND IMMEDIATE CONTRACTOR RESPONSIBILITIES. Interested parties are strongly encouraged to include RELEVANT EXAMPLES of its capabilities to perform the stated requirements. The Capability Statement also must include the following information: company name, address, point of contact, phone/fax/e-mail; and business size and status (e.g., small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business). Responses are requested not later than January 10, 2006. Capability statements will not be accepted after the due date. THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION FOR BID (IFB), REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) OR REQUEST FOR APPLICATION (RFA) AND IN NO WAY OBLIGATES THE GOVERNMENT TO AWARD A CONTRACT. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) is 519190 with a size standard of $6.5 million.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, DC
- Record
- SN00956806-W 20051224/051222211909 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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