2022 Federal Index
Repurpose for Results
In FY22, did the agency shift funds away from or within any practice, policy, or program that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes (examples: requiring low-performing grantees to re-compete for funding; removing ineffective interventions from allowable use of grant funds; incentivizing or urging grant applicants to stop using ineffective practices in funding announcements; proposing the elimination of ineffective programs through annual budget requests; incentivizing well-designed trials to fill specific knowledge gaps; supporting low-performing grantees through mentoring, improvement plans, and other forms of assistance; and using rigorous evaluation results to shift funds away from a program)?
Score
8
8
Millennium Challenge Corporation
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes and did the agency act on that policy?
- Its Policy on Suspension and Termination specifies the reasons for which MCC may suspend or terminate assistance to partner countries, including if a country “engages in a pattern of actions inconsistent with the MCC’s eligibility criteria” by by exhibiting negative outcomes such as:
- a decline in performance on the indicators used to determine eligibility;
- a decline in performance not yet reflected in the indicators used to determine eligibility; or
- actions by the country which are determined to be contrary to sound performance in the areas assessed for eligibility for assistance, and which together evidence an overall decline in the country’s commitment to the eligibility criteria.
- Of 64 compact selections by MCC’s Board of Directors, including regional compacts, 17 have had their partnerships or a portion of their funding ended due to concerns about country commitment to MCC’s eligibility criteria or a failure to adhere to their responsibilities under the compact. The Policy on Suspension and Termination also allows MCC to reinstate eligibility when countries demonstrate a clear policy reversal, a remediation of MCC’s concerns, and an obvious commitment to MCC’s eligibility indicators, including achieving desired results.
- In a number of cases, MCC has repurposed investments based on real-time evidence. In MCC’s first compact with Lesotho, MCC canceled the Automated Clearing House sub-activity within the Private Sector Development Project after monitoring data determined that it would not accomplish the economic growth and poverty reduction outcomes envisioned during compact development. The remaining $600,000 in the sub-activity was transferred to the Debit Smart Card sub-activity, which targeted expanding financial services to people living in remote areas of Lesotho. In Tanzania, the $32,000,000 Non-Revenue Water activity was re-scoped after the final design estimates on two of the activity’s infrastructure investments indicated higher costs that would significantly impact their economic rates of return. As a result, $13,200,000 was reallocated to the Lower Ruvu Plant Expansion activity, $9,600,000 to the Morogoro Water Supply activity, and $400,000 for other environmental and social activities. In all of these examples, the funding was either reallocated to activities with continued evidence of results or returned to MCC for investment in future programming.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- For every investment in implementation, MCC undertakes a Quarterly Performance Review with senior leadership to review, among many issues, quarterly results include indicator tracking tables. If programs are not meeting evidence-based targets, MCC undertakes mitigation efforts to work with the partner country and program implementers to achieve desired results. These efforts are program- and context-specific but can take the form of increased technical assistance, reallocated funds, and/or new methods of implementation. For example, MCC reallocated funds in its compact with Ghana after the country failed to achieve approved policy reforms to ensure the sustainability of the investments. Upon program completion, if a program does not meet expected results targets, MCC works to understand and document why and how this occurred, beginning with program design, the theory of change, and program implementation. The results and learning from this inquiry are published through the country’s Star Report.
- The corporation also consistently monitors the progress of compact programs and their evaluations across sectors, using the learning from this evidence to make changes to its operations. For example, in Côte d’Ivoire, MCC is currently implementing the Abidjan Transport Project that builds on critical learning from sixteen completed roads projects. The corporation learned that projects must be selected based on a complete road network analysis and that any transport program must address policy and institutional issues in the transport sector up front to ensure the sustainability of road investments. As such, the Abidjan Transport Project will focus on the rehabilitation of up to 32 kilometers of critical roadway and adjoining infrastructure in the central corridor of Abidjan and will invest in educational and training resources for road asset management, develop road asset and safety resources and management tools, and develop mechanisms to support more efficient use of road maintenance funds.
- In Morocco, MCC is implementing a Workforce Development activity that builds on the results and learning from eleven completed technical and vocational education and training (TVET) investments. MCC synthesized learning from past TVET programs and concluded that MCC’s TVET investments should have two primary goals: placing graduates in higher income jobs and supplying the private sector with in-demand skills. Based on this learning, the Morocco Compact’s Workforce Development activity aims to increase the quality and relevance of TVET by supporting private-sector-driven governance as well as the construction/rehabilitation of fifteen training centers, together with targeted investments in policy reform of the sector. This activity is also investing in improvements to job placement services through a results-based financing mechanism as well as improvements to the availability and analysis of labor market data.
Score
5
5
U.S. Department of Education
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- The Department works with grantees to support the implementation of their projects to achieve intended outcomes. The Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) explains that ED considers whether grantees make “substantial progress” when deciding whether to continue grant awards. In deciding whether a grantee has made substantial progress, ED considers information about grantee performance. If a continuation award is reduced, more funding may be made available for other applicants, grantees, or activities. Under some grant programs, due to statutory requirements or historical practices, programs assess performance from the three first years of grant activities to determine whether to provide two additional years of funding as part of a five-year grant.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes
- The Department conducts a variety of technical assistance to support grantees to improve outcomes. Department staff work with grantees to assess their progress and, when needed, provide technical assistance to support program improvement. On a national scale, the Comprehensive Centers program, Regional Educational Laboratories, and technical assistance centers managed by the Office of Special Education Programs develop resources and provide technical assistance. The Department uses a tiered approach in these efforts, providing universal general technical assistance through a more general dissemination strategy; targeted technical assistance efforts that address common needs and issues among a number of grantees, and intensive technical assistance that is more focused on specific issues faced by specific recipients. The Department also supports program-specific technical assistance for a variety of individual grant programs.
Score
6
6
U.S. Agency for International Development
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- Based on the USAID Rapid Feedback approach USAID/Cambodia mission and implementers developed a Theory of Change, and conducted implementation research and rapid experiments on social and behavior change communication for communities and for donors. The Cambodia Children’s Trust had been working at the community level to discourage families from sending their children to residential care institutions. The mission also supported Friends International, which had been working with donors to encourage behavior change on their support to RCIs. Both implementers adopted action plans based on the results: the Cambodia Children’s Trustused the findings to streamline the social behavior change campaign before rolling it out to more villages, and Friends International used the rapid feedback findings to inform use of social and behavior change communication beyond paid social media.
- The agency shifts funds away from ineffective grantees. For example, the Water and Energy for Food Grand Challenge, and before that, the Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge was designed with a technical assistance facility to consult and work with grantees to identify specific growth barriers and then connect them with vetted service providers that bring expertise and capabilities to help these grantees overcome their strategic barriers. The technical assistance facility provides tailored financial and acceleration support to help these grantees improve their market-driven business development, commercial growth, and scaling.
- If a grantee is unable to meet specific performance targets, such as number of customers or product sales, further funding is not granted (per the terms of the grant), and the grantee is re-categorized into the program’s group of unsuccessful alumni. The Securing Water for Food Grand Challenge used milestone-based grants to terminate fifteen awards that were not meeting their annual milestones and shifted that money to both grants and technical assistance for the remaining twenty-five awards in the program.
- Also, USAID’s INVEST program is designed for constant feedback loops around the partner performance. Not only are underperforming partners dropped, but new partners can be added dynamically, based on demand. This greatly increases USAID’s new partner base and elevates the performance standard across the board.
- The agency’s Business Ecosystem Project , implemented by Palladium Group, is designed to increase private sector investment in strengthening domestic supply chains and workforce development in North Macedonia. Business Ecosystem Project’s initial strategy was to mobilize corporate social responsibility funds from investors and large international corporations toward the project’s goal, but it quickly became evident that such investments would be neither strategic nor sustainable. To achieve a lasting impact on North Macedonia’s business ecosystem, Business Ecosystem Project partnered with companies that were better positioned to recognize the link between local economic development and their own business interest. Business Ecosystem Project learned from its local partners and adapted its private sector engagement strategy to target small, medium, and large enterprises that were more dependent on domestic supply chains and workers. It no longer focuses only on foreign direct investment companies with corporate social responsibility budgets, but approaches all companies that have a real economic incentive to invest in local supply chains and workforce development. This approach was more effective and allowed Business Ecosystem Project to co-invest in a diverse range of supply chain and workforce development initiatives, first as a proof of concept and later at scale.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- USAID/Food for Peace’s Sustainable Action for Resilience and Food Security (Sabal) is a five-year program in Nepal, implemented by Save the Children and a consortium of partners. Sabal’s goal is to improve food security and resilience in targeted districts in Nepal by improving livelihoods, health and nutrition, disaster risk reduction, and climate change adaptation. Sabal utilized CLA approaches such as pause and reflect, M&E for learning, and adaptive management to be able to adapt to the changing context. In 2015, there were devastating earthquakes, which necessitated geographic program expansion and then, two years later, there were budget cuts, which meant ending implementation in those expansion areas. At that time, CLA approaches were utilized to identify sustainability strategies; assess the level of self-reliance among community groups; tailor interventions based on the data; and gain consensus and buy-in among internal staff, consortium partners, and the local government. As a result, Sabal registered high-performing community groups with the government and linked these groups with local resources and leaders. At the same time, Sabal identified poorly performing groups and built their capacity through targeted training and community capacity building.
- The agency’s Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Eastern Uganda (RHITES-E) activity (2016-2021), implemented by IntraHealth International and its partners, supports the Government of Uganda’s health “surge” strategy to find new HIV positive patients and enroll them in care and treatment. The data and results from RHITES-E’s first quarter performance review showed that the activity was way behind its target. The activity leadership and USAID decided to shift from a “business as usual” attitude to applying collaborating, learning, and adapting approaches to draw on and analyze existing data, from a USAID dashboard, to reflect on findings with key stakeholders and fill identified needs and gaps to improve surge efforts. By the end of the fiscal year 2017, the activity had improved its surge performance, resulting in better results and outcomes, and shifted in its culture to be a learning organization. Together with stakeholders, staff identified ineffective approaches such as mass HIV testing and developed and implemented new strategies to include screening of clients before testing for efficient and effective identification and linkage of new HIV positive clients into care and treatment.
- The agency’s Empleando Futuros (Employing Futures) program, an at-risk youth program, was launched in Honduras in 2016. During its first year, a pause and reflect event found a significant number of dropouts and the need to strengthen the program’s response to better meet the needs of youth and the labor market. Subsequently USAID and its implementing partner, Banyon Global, applied USAID’s collaborating, learning, and adapting framework and tools to establish a framework for strategic pause and reflect events throughout the year, strengthen the program’s performance monitoring system, and develop an online platform for tracking program participants’ progress. These changes helped the implementer to revisit the program’s underlying assumptions and theory of change, learn continuously, and inform evidence-based decisions. Preliminary findings suggest that the program has fewer dropouts, capacity of local systems and partners has been strengthened, and private sector engagement has improved.
Score
6
6
AmeriCorps
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- AmeriCorps’s State and National denied funding to ten FY22 applicants that requested $3,786,174 for new or recompete funding because they did not demonstrate evidence for the proposed program. These funds were reallocated and invested in applications with a demonstrated evidence base.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- AmeriCorps portfolio managers continued to use a grant management tool (the Portfolio Navigator) that allows them to access data about grantee organizations in real time to facilitate improved oversight and support.
- AmeriCorps’ ORE continued to invest $918,169 in evaluation technical assistance support for grantees. This funding is available to all competitive AmeriCorps state and national grantees seeking to improve their ability to empirically demonstrate their effectiveness. This support was expanded to AmeriCorps Seniors and VISTA grantees in FY22.
Score
4
4
U.S. Department of Labor
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- Many of the ETA’s competitive grant programs require consideration of past performance. For example, prospective YouthBuild applicants are selected in part on the basis of their past performance of demonstrated effectiveness in achieving critical outcomes for youth.
- Reforming Job Corps provides an example of such efforts to repurpose resources based upon a rigorous analysis of available data. As part of this reform effort, DOL’s FY20 budget request ends the Department of Agriculture’s involvement in the program, unifying responsibility in DOL. Workforce development is not a core Department of Agriculture role, and the twenty-five centers it operates are overrepresented in the lowest performing cohort of centers.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- The Department’s ETA staff review and provide feedback on the WIOA state plans and two-year modifications. Feedback and technical assistance are provided on planned evaluations. To supplement this feedback, ETA sponsors the Evaluation and Research Hub on WorkforceGPS, which is a community point of access to support workforce development professionals in their use of evaluations to improve state and local workforce systems. Additionally, ETA provides technical assistance, followed by sanctions, to states that fail to achieve negotiated levels of performance under WIOA.
- Professionals and leaders also can access a variety of resources and tools, including a learning cohort community to help improve their research and evaluations capacities. The WorkforceGPS includes links to resources on assessment readiness, evaluation design, and performance data, all focused on improving the public workforce system.
Score
6
6
Administration for Children and Families (HHS)
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 allows federal matching funds only for evidence-based prevention services offered by states, thereby incentivizing states to shift their spending from non-evidence-based approaches.
- For ACF’s Child and Family Services Reviews of state child welfare systems, states determined not to have achieved substantial conformity in all the areas assessed must develop and implement a Program Improvement Plan addressing the areas of nonconformity. ACF supports the states with technical assistance and monitors implementation of their plans. States must successfully complete their plans to avoid financial penalties for nonconformance.
- The ACF Head Start program significantly expanded its accountability provisions with the establishment of five-year Head Start grant service periods and the DRS. The DRS was designed to determine whether Head Start and Early Head Start programs are providing high-quality comprehensive services to the children and families in their communities. Where they are not, grantees are denied automatic renewal of their grant and must apply for funding renewal through an open competition process. Those determinations are based on seven conditions, one of which looks at how Head Start classrooms within programs perform on CLASS, an observation-based measure of the quality of teacher-child interactions. Data from ACF’s Head Start FACES and Quality Features, Dosage, Thresholds and Child Outcomes (Q-DOT) study were used to craft the regulations that created the DRS and informed key decisions in its implementation. This included where to set minimum thresholds for average CLASS scores, the number of classrooms within programs to be sampled to ensure stable program-level estimates on CLASS, and the number of cycles of CLASS observations to conduct. At the time the DRS notification letters were sent out to grantees in 2011, there were 1,421 non-tribal active grants, and of these, 453 (32%) were required to re-compete.
- Findings from the evaluation of the first round HPOG Grants program influenced the funding opportunity announcement for the second round of HPOG funding. Namely, the scoring criteria used to select HPOG 2.0 grantees incorporated knowledge gained about challenges experienced in the HPOG 1.0 grant program. For example, based on those challenges, applicants were asked to clearly demonstrate﹘and verify with local employers﹘an unmet need in their service area for the education and training activities proposed. Applicants were also required to provide projections for the number of individuals expected to begin and complete basic skills education. Grantees must submit semiannual and annual progress reports to ACF to show their progress in meeting these projections. If they have trouble doing so, grantees are provided with technical assistance to support improvement or are put on a corrective action plan so that ACF can more closely monitor their steps toward improvement.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- In an effort to create operational efficiencies and increase grantee capacity for mission-related activities, ACF implemented a process in 2019 in which the grants management office completes annual risk modeling of grantee financial administrative datasets, which helps identify organizations that would benefit from targeted technical assistance. The grants management office provides technical assistance to these grantees to improve their financial management and help direct resources toward effective service delivery.
- As mentioned in 10.1, states reviewed by a Child and Family Services Review and determined not to have achieved substantial conformity in all the areas assessed must develop and implement a Program Improvement Plan addressing the areas of nonconformity. The Administration for Children and Families supports states with technical assistance and monitors implementation of their plans. It also provides broad programmatic technical assistance to support grantees in improving their service delivery, including the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative. The collaborative is designed to help public child welfare agencies, tribes, and courts enhance and mobilize the human and organizational assets necessary to meet federal standards and requirements; improve child welfare practice and administration; and achieve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children, youth, and families. The administration also sponsors the Child Welfare Information Gateway, a platform connecting child welfare, adoption, and related professionals as well as the public to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more.
- Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grantees are required to enter performance data in the nFORM management information system, and ACF uses that data to closely monitor grantee performance toward preestablished performance targets. The administration identifies grantees who are not on track to meet key targets on a regular basis and provides targeted technical assistance through its technical assistance contracts to help them overcome obstacles and improve performance in a data-driven manner. It also relies heavily on nFORM data in its official annual CAPstone review of HMRF grantee performance. In addition, technical assistance providers work closely with HMRF grantees that are conducting local evaluations to ensure that they are implemented successfully. Grantees conducting local impact evaluations are required to demonstrate readiness prior to receiving approval to launch data collection for the impact study.
Score
4
4
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
10.1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- As a matter of policy, SAMHSA uses the term “restricted status” to describe grant recipients that are financially unstable, have inadequate financial management systems, or are poor programmatic performers. Grants placed on restricted status require additional monitoring and have additional award conditions that must be met before funds can be drawn. SAMHSA adheres to HHS’s Grants Policy Statement, including the policy on suspension or termination, which states that, “if a recipient has failed to materially comply with the terms and conditions of award, the OPDIV [Grant-Awarding Operating Division] may suspend the grant, pending corrective action, or may terminate the grant for cause” (p. II-89).
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- Due to the diversity of SAMHSA grantees and the variety of grants awarded, it is not possible to have a one size fits all policy for grantees who fail to achieve desired outcomes. However, SAMHSA is dedicated to ensuring that grantees use federal funds as expected and that grantees adhere to reporting and data requirements. Following is a current example illustrating SAMHSA’s dedication to its grantees and its commitment to hold grantees accountable for federal dollars:
- In FY22, a SAMHSA grantee was experiencing great difficulties submitting required documentations and was deemed not in compliance with program requirements. As a result of noncompliance, the Division of Grants Management and the government program officer had multiple telephone conversations with the grantee to provide technical assistance, clarify expectations, and provide deadlines extensions when possible. However, due to the seriousness of the problem and the lack of any significant progress or effort to submit the required documents, the Division of Grants Management and program officer outlined a Corrective Action Plan for the grantee. This plan included the identified delinquent items and concerns along with specific due dates for the grantee to submit the required documents to remain in compliance with program requirements.
- The Corrective Action Plan stipulates that the grantee has two weeks to provide the required documents. If the grantee does not submit delinquent items outlined in the Corrective Action Plan by the due date, then the Division of Grants Management and government program officer will recommend relinquishment or award termination. The grant will be terminated because the grantee failed to meet the terms and conditions outlined in the Notice of Funding Announcement and the Notice of Award and was unable to correct the deficiencies within a reasonable period with multiple technical assistance attempts and unused federal funds. After the grant has been relinquished or terminated, the Division of Grants Management and government program officer will recommend offsetting unused federal funds.
- The Performance Accountability and Reporting System allows SAMHSA staff to regularly monitor discretionary grant status as well as to meet with grant program directors. If a grantee is falling behind or not meeting proposed targets, SAMHSA staff access the data in real time to provide the support or technical assistance needed to ensure that the grantee does not fail. Given the important mission of SAMHSA, to reduce the impact of substance use and mental illness on America’s communities, it is critical that struggling communities are identified early with the goal of continuous quality improvement and support.
Score
5
5
U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development
10. 1 Did the agency have policy(ies) for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- The evaluation of the Housing First model of rehousing chronically homeless individuals with serious mental illness supported a policy shift toward first achieving housing stability to provide a platform for social services. Based on such evidence, HUD continues to encourage the use of more cost-effective rapid rehousing approaches combined with increased permanent supportive housing that is integrated with mainstream services provided by Health and Human Services, Veteran’s Affairs, and others. Additionally, a precondition for CoC applicants to be awarded FY19 expansion bonus funding was that they rank homeless assistance projects on the basis of how they improve system performance.
- HUD created the RAD to give public housing agencies a new tool to preserve and improve their public housing properties and address the backlog of deferred maintenance. The Rental Assistance Demonstration is an example of HUD allowing local agencies to shift funds from public housing to Section 8 programs to make cost-effective use of those funds and preserve the affordable housing stock. Since the program’s creation in 2012, PHAshave converted 1,390 projects covering 179,651 housing units under the RAD program. The Office of PD&R has funded a series of evaluations of RAD that have informed its implementation.
- Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery (DR) is a large and growing program funded by emergency appropriations outside of HUD’s regular budgeting process. In FY18, HUD started promoting mitigation activities for disaster-prone communities, allocating $16,000,000,000 of the $28,000,000,000 in emergency disaster recovery funds for disaster mitigation in previously disaster-stricken communities. This policy shift was informed by evidence that vulnerability of communities to disasters is increasing even as frequency and severity of severe weather events might also be increasing, such that the National Institute of Building Sciences estimated that society saves $4 in future losses for every $1 spent on mitigation. The department also drew on the evidence of mitigation pilots through the Hurricane Sandy Rebuild by Design competition and the National Disaster Resilience Competition. By investing in mitigation activities, rather than paying to rebuild existing infrastructure in its previous form, HUD shifted funds in order to help break the cycle of publicly funded rebuilding and repeated loss.
- Department of Housing and Urban Development grant programs typically provide for recapture of funds that are not committed in a timely fashion or that remain unexpended after the limits. Effective management by grantees can be especially crucial for timely completion of complex housing development projects, such as with the Capital Fund for public housing and Housing Trust Fund for states. Such funds are reallocated to more effective grantees. For the new $5,000,000,000 Emergency Housing Vouchers program, HUD will assess the performance of the PHAs, implementing the program one year after each PHA receives its funding increment and may revoke or reallocate unissued vouchers from PHAs with substandard leasing performance.
- Preference points used by competitive programs favor grantees that provide evidence of successful outcomes and strategies. The CoC program awards points that shift funds toward grant applications that have demonstrated better outcomes, that rank and fund better-performing projects, and that take over programs from small and struggling recipients. As noted in the notice of funding: “To encourage CoC mergers and mitigate the potential adverse scoring implications that may occur when a high performing CoC merges with one or more lower performing CoC(s), HUD will award up to 25 bonus points to CoCs that completed a merger.”
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- Through the Community Compass technical assistance program, HUD offers numerous prepared training opportunities as well as in-depth program assistance for grantees or program recipients needing intensive tailored assistance or long-term capacity building support to remediate challenges and achieve their potential as HUD program partners.
- The Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed to use public housing operating funds set aside for receivership of troubled housing authorities more proactively to address the needs of high-risk PHAs before they go into receivership, including through competitive grants for PHAs that are troubled, substandard, at-risk, or insolvent to help preserve affordable housing for the future. The Real Estate Assessment Center collects extensive data on physical condition, finances, and management to determine PHA status, and field staff have expertise to identify risk factors and useful corrective actions.
Score
4
4
Administration for Community Living (HHS)
10.1 Did the agency have a policy for determining when to shift funds away from grantees, practices, policies, interventions, and/or programs that consistently failed to achieve desired outcomes, and did the agency act on that policy?
- Because much of ACL’s funding is based on noncompetitive formula grants that cannot be reallocated to other programs or grantees, there is not an ACL-wide policy for this purpose. For several programs, such as most under the Older American Act, “entities such as states, U.S. territories, and tribal organizations are allotted funding based on a population-based formula factor (e.g., aged 55 and over, aged 60 and over, or aged 70 and over). Some statutory requirements for program funding allocations include a “hold harmless” provision, which guarantees that state or other entities’ allotments will remain at a certain fiscal year level or amount, provided sufficient funding in a given year.
10.2 Did the agency identify and provide support to agency programs or grantees that failed to achieve desired outcomes?
- While much of ACL’s funding is based on noncompetitive formula grants, and therefore cannot be reallocated to other programs, evaluation staff work closely with program staff to identify ways to translate evaluation findings into technical assistance and other types of program support. For example, based on early results from an evaluation of the Tribal grant program, ACL has developed new program support materials to improve the delivery of Tribal caregiver programs.
- The agency typically proactively provides technical assistance in order to help programs to be successful, rather than redirecting funding. For example, the State Health Insurance Assistance Program funded a national technical assistance center for this purpose.