Update on First Steps Audit

SURVEY UPDATE! The provider link has been sent to current active as well as providers who are no longer working in the First Steps Early Intervention System. In addition 4300 postcards will be sent to providers of whom we do not have a current email address. A postcard sent to a sampling of the over 100000 eligible families who have been touched by First Steps should be in the mail by the end of January. Families who participate can complete the survey online or call the 800 # included on the postcard to complete the survey over the phone.

RESPONSE TO RECENT INQUIRIES:
Michael Conn-Powers PhD, principle investigator responds to questions forwarded to him regarding the audit.

1. Should qualifications for providers be increased and should providers be evaluated on their performance?
That is outside the scope of what the committee originally charged us to do and will have to be decided with future discussion involving higher education, state and provider leadership.

2. Should applicants be tracked whether or not they receive or leave service?
We are doing that as part of the family survey.
We will be following up with a large sample of families who have touched First Steps in the past 10 years. One of the other purposes of the survey is to assess the long-term impact of First Steps on children and families.

3. Regardless of public policy, do parents prefer that all services be provided in natural environments?
Although the original committee that met to decide the focus of the audit brought that up, the group as a whole did not rate this item as a priority.

4. Does the program or practitioners track what people are not getting and services that would be beneficial?
We are tackling this question as part of the audit. There isn’t strong/consistent data tracking this from the state, so we will be surveying providers to ask this question. I know that the state does ask families if they decline or withdraw from services because they are unable to access the services they need.

5. There was no question relating to the source of the referral, e.g., self-referral, primary physician, nurse etc.
Again, the committee did not rate this as a high priority item either. I can tell you that the state does collect this data and we may be able to report it

6. How many kids do not enter the program because of cost participation?
That is part of the audit and one of the questions we do ask families. It is also data that the state collects and we will be reporting both.

7. What sources are you using to gather the data for the audit?
State services, provider, and costs data
Family and Provider Surveys
Existing documents that look at policies, monitoring/compliance, federal reports literature

8. How do you plan to survey families? Will ALL families be surveyed? Current and past? Eligible and non eligible?
Our goal is to survey a large sample of families who have been touched by First Steps. First Steps will assist us in mailing a postcard inviting the sample of families to participate. Families will have the choice of completing an online survey or contacting us for a phone interview.

9. How will you survey providers? Will all providers be surveyed? What about providers that have been dis-enrolled?
Our goal is to survey all providers- we have sent out an email invitation (January 28) and will be sending a postcard invitation to providers we didn’t have email addresses (February 1) to all current and past providers. The providers will have the choice of completing an online survey or contacting us for a phone interview.