| Utah Foster Care Petition Successful As Utah Foster Care (UFC) has received a number of questions from foster families regarding this, we are sharing the following information: Utah Foster Care’s formal petition with the state of Utah related to concerns regarding the procurement process of a contract to recruit and train foster parents in Utah was upheld last week. Inadvertent mistakes were found to have occurred during the procurement bidding process that led to budget information being omitted and incorrect scoring criteria being given to applicants. This lead to an inability for applicants to adequately respond to scoring criteria and confusion, resulting in the decision to reissue the solicitation. DCFS will reopen the procurement process with the Division of Purchasing to select an agency to provide foster parent recruitment, training, and retention services for the next five years. Any questions regarding when this will happen should be directed to DCFS and/or the Division of Purchasing. In the meantime, and in order to assure that there is not a disruption in services while this takes place, UFC’s current contract will be extended through the end of October, 2020. For foster families, this means that you will continue to contact the same UFC staff you have been working with for questions regarding training, clusters, wishing well funds, mentors, etc. All services will continue exactly as they have been. “We are thrilled with this outcome to our petition and hope to continue fulfilling the mission we were given by Utah’s legislature more than 20 years ago,” says Mike Hamblin, CEO of Utah Foster Care. The Utah legislature created UFC in 1999 specifically to develop innovative strategies to recruit, train, and provide support for foster families, and it has fulfilled that mission ever since. Governor Gary Herbert has praised Utah Foster Care for creating a “Utah solution” to one of the state’s most pressing problems (having enough well-trained foster families). “Utah Foster Care has worked closely with The Adoption Exchange and its staff over the years. We respect their staff and the services they provide,” says Hamblin. “We hope to be able to continue in our role while expanding our partnership with The Adoption Exchange, working together for Utah’s foster families and the children they care for.” |
