Tribal MIECHV Program Guidance for Submitting an Annual to the Secretary_w PRA language 6.4.21

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families

Office of Child Care

Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood

Home Visiting Program

Guidance for Submitting an

Annual Report to the Secretary

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families

Office of Child Care

330 C Street SW

Washington, DC 20447

Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program

Background Information:

Guidance for Submitting an Annual Report to the Secretary

511(e)(8)(A) of the Social Security Act Section requires that grantees under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program for states and jurisdictions submit an annual report to the Secretary of Health and Human Services regarding the program and activities carried out under the program, including such data and information as the Secretary shall require. Section 511 (h)(2)(A) further states that the requirements for the MIECHV grants to tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations are to be consistent, to the greatest extent practicable, with the requirements for grantees under the MIECHV program for states and jurisdictions. Tribal MIECHV grantees have been notified by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) that in each year of their grant, except the first year, they must comply with the requirement for submitting an Annual Report to the Secretary that should describe activities carried out under the program during the past reporting period.

This document provides guidance to grantees when submitting their Annual Report to the Secretary. Reports shall be submitted via GrantSolutions.gov per instructions given to each grantee by ACF as part of their cooperative agreement.

Any questions and comments regarding this guidance may be addressed to:

Anne Bergan

Senior Policy Analyst

Tribal Home Visiting Program

Administration for Children and Families, HHS

Mary E. Switzer Building

330 C Street, SW, Suite 3014F

Washington, DC 20201

[email protected]

(202) 260-8515

PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: Through this information collection, ACF is gathering information to report activities associated with grants to the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. The purpose of this information collection is to submit an annual report to the Secretary of HHS. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 25 hours per grantee, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a mandatory collection of information through section 511(e)(8)(A) of the Social Security Act. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0409 and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.

Guidance for Submitting an Annual Report to the Secretary

Each year following the first year of the grant, Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) grantees must provide a written report to the Secretary regarding the program and activities carried out under their cooperative agreement during the previous reporting period. The seven Sections below represent the primary grant activities on which to report.

The audience for the Annual Report to the Secretary (ARS) is the Secretary of Health and Human Services and ACF. As such, it is critical that you provide a comprehensive, well-written response that is addresses each of the sections below. There are other reports that grantees submit, including semi-annual program performance, quarterly, performance and demographic and service utilization data reports. While these reports are important, the objectives for the ARS are to:

• Provide rich, contextual information that cannot be found in other types of Tribal MIECHV reporting.

• Reduce redundancies and burden in other types of Tribal MIECHV reporting.

• Use information provided by grantees to help inform program support and future policy decisions.

The goal of the ARS is to tell the story of your program, your community, and the families you serve. By doing so, you are providing valuable information to HHS regarding your assessment of the challenges, successes, and lessons learned over the past year. This is also an opportunity for you to reflect on your progress and to help inform your future programmatic decisions.

Section 1: Update on Home Visiting Program Goals and Objectives

Please discuss how you are meeting the goals and objectives you set out to accomplish when you developed your Implementation Plan. Your goals and objectives are at the heart of all the activities you will be reporting on.

• List each program goal and objective identified in your Implementation Plan.

• If you met any goals and objectives, please describe how you achieved them.

• If your goals and objectives are in progress, please describe the steps you took towards achieving each goal and objective during the most recent reporting period.

• If you encountered any challenges, describe barriers to progress and the strategies and steps you have taken to overcome them. 

Section 2: Update on the Implementation of the Home Visiting Program in Targeted Community(ies)

Reflecting on your program’s goals and objectives, please discuss the planning and implementing of your home visiting program, as described in your Implementation Plan. Please address each of the items listed below and share any success in meeting your goals and objectives. If you have already addressed this in Section 1, please reference the relevant Goals and Objective here in Section 2 and where applicable, discuss any barriers or challenges you encountered and the steps taken to overcome these barriers and challenges.

• Please describe your progress in engaging with the broader community(ies) (e.g., partner agencies, local advisory committee, stakeholders within your community, tribal leadership, leadership within your organization, partner agencies, the families you serve) around your home visiting program.

• Please describe your work to-date with the home visiting model developer, including:

  • A description of any technical assistance and support provided during the reporting period from the model(s)

  • A description of your use or access to curriculum and other materials needed to implement the home visiting model and whether these materials were useful.

  • A description of any training and professional development supports you may have obtained from the home visiting model(s) developer and whether the training helped when implementing your program.

• Please describe your efforts to provide support and professional development to staff. Describe activities implemented over the past year and outcomes related to:

  • Staff recruitment and hiring

  • Professional development and support for staff well-being

  • Staff retention

  • Trainings to ensure well-trained, competent staff are trained beyond model developer provided activities

  • High quality reflective, clinical, and administrative supervision

  • Infant and early childhood mental health consultation

• Please describe your efforts to recruit, engage, and retain program participants, including progress on meeting objectives. Discuss your referral partners, and what has been your most successful recruitment strategy. If possible, discuss and provide data on:

  • Recruitment of families

  • Engagement of families

  • Retention of families

  • Participant completion of the program

• Please describe your activities related to providing high quality home visiting program services, including:

  • Ensuring the selected home visiting model(s), adaptations, enhancements, and supplements are being implemented with fidelity

  • Developing and documenting program operations, policies, and procedures to support implementation fidelity and program quality

• Please describe steps taken toward the development of a coordinated early childhood system, including coordination and collaboration between your home visiting program and other programs and resources for pregnant people, expectant fathers, young children, and families in the community(ies).

  • Describe the actions you have taken to improve referrals and services between your program and others in the community.

  • Describe the partnerships you have developed and provide any updates on these collaborations.

• Please describe your activities associated with the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). In the table below, please report how/if you have used your supplemental ARPA funds in the areas listed. If you did not use ARPA funds for a particular area, you can answer no. For answers that are yes, please provide an update on how you have used these funds.

How have the ARPA funds been used in the following areas identified by the legislation?	Yes/No	If you answered yes, please provide a description below how the funds were used in this area?
Serving families with home visits, whether in person or virtually
Staff costs associated with home visits (including hazard pay)
Training for home visitors on virtual home visits, emergency preparedness, and domestic violence
Helping enrolled families acquire technology needed to conduct a virtual home visit, including WiFi access or cell phone minutes
Providing emergency supplies to enrolled families, including formula, food, water, hand soap and sanitizer, and diapers and diapering supplies
Coordinating with and providing reimbursement to diaper banks when using them to provide emergency supplies
Providing prepaid grocery cards to an eligible family

• If applicable, please provide any testimonials, success stories, photos, and videos you would like to share regarding the implementation of your home visiting program.

Section 3: Progress toward Meeting Performance Measurement Requirements

Please provide a narrative discussing the performance measurement data collection efforts, including a summary of barriers/challenges encountered during data collection efforts and steps taken to overcome them. Thinking about the past year, please address each of the items listed below.

• Please describe how your program’s process for monitoring data collection and entry and describe your team’s progress towards collecting complete and high-quality performance data. This could include:

  • Training on data quality processes for staff, adding policies or protocols to program operations, testing changes for data collection and entry as part of continuous quality improvement (CQI) work, etc.

• Relevant information on program processes for monitoring data collection and entry may be found in Implementation Plan Section 3 for IEG1s (Implementation and Expansion Grants Cohort 1) and DIGs (Development and Implementation Grants), and in Section 4.1 for IEG2s (Implementation and Expansion Grants Cohort 2).

  • Relevant information on program progress in collecting complete and high quality data. As a starting point, you may refer to your latest Tribal Home Visiting Reporting System (THVRS) Form 2 report under performance considerations, but please expand and tell us more on your program’s experiences over the last year with your data quality monitoring efforts.

• Any training activities which could include refresher trainings for your team, including home visitors on data collection, regular data quality checks, and reviewing data during staff meetings.

• Please discuss how you are using performance data your program collects to monitor and assess the quality of program implementation and service delivery.

• Please describe the top two successes your team has experienced related to the collection, analysis, federal reporting, and use of performance data during the reporting period.

• Please describe the top two challenges your team has experienced with performance data collection and reporting during the reporting period. How have you addressed these challenges?

Section 4: Update on Rigorous Evaluation Activities

Please provide an update on rigorous evaluation activities, and report on the following:

For those grantees not participating in the multi-site implementation evaluation of Tribal MIECHV (MUSE) please respond below. MUSE grantees please complete your section or jump to the section using this link.

• Thinking about activities that have occurred during the past year, please select the phase of your evaluation activities in the timeline below.

Evaluation Timeline

• Please list your evaluation questions and depending upon the selected evaluation phase, address the following:

Phase 1: Evaluation Planning

• Please describe your team’s progress

• Activities conducted to engage community members in the evaluation

• Developing the evaluation plan (if not already approved)

• Engaging in the ACF review and approval process

• Developing, submitting, and gaining approval of the IRB application

Phase 2: Evaluation Implementation

• Please describe your team’s progress conducting the evaluation and any evaluation activities that took place during the reporting period.

• Please note the following (if applicable):

• The number of participants to be enrolled in the evaluation and progress towards enrolling your targeted sample

• Data collected, including the number of participants for whom data were collected, the response rate, and the type of data collected/measures used

• Activities conducted to engage and inform community members of the evaluation’s progress

Phase 3: Conducting Analysis and Writing Final Report/Dissemination

(Grantees should note that more extensive information on these aspects of your analysis and findings will go into a Final Report to the Secretary).

• Please describe your team’s progress

• Conducting planned analysis

• Reviewing findings

• Engaging community and stakeholders in interpreting findings

• Please describe key evaluation findings

• Please note the following (if applicable):

• Progress towards writing the final report

• Dissemination of evaluation findings (e.g., reports or presentations provided to program stakeholders and community members; presentations at research, evaluation, or practitioner conferences; and work on articles for scholarly journals or other publications.) If applicable, please attach any examples you wish to share.

Evaluation Successes and Challenges

• Please describe the top two successes your team has experienced with rigorous evaluation during the reporting period.

• Please describe the top two challenges your team has experienced with rigorous evaluation data during the reporting period. How have you addressed those challenges? 

For those grantees participating in the multi-site implementation evaluation of Tribal MIECHV

(MUSE):

• Due to the pandemic, data collection for MUSE was paused. Please describe one success and one challenge your staff experienced as your program restarted and continued MUSE data collection during this reporting period. Please include recommendations for the future if data collection needs to be paused and restarted again in this or another study. 

• Please describe any other successes your program experienced around participation in MUSE during this reporting period. What contributed to your program’s success?

• Please describe any other challenges your program experienced related to participation in MUSE during this reporting period. How have you addressed these challenges? How has your MUSE liaison supported you in addressing these challenges?

• For dissemination efforts in MUSE, each grantee will have a representative on the dissemination committee. Representatives will be asked to review materials and have the option of contributing to the development of dissemination products. How will you/did you select your representative? What type of involvement are you hoping your representative will have in MUSE dissemination activities? If committee work has begun, how has your representative been involved?

Section 5: Home Visiting Program Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Efforts

Please provide an update on your efforts regarding planning and implementing continuous quality improvement activities during the reporting period, including CQI opportunities, changes implemented, data collected, and results obtained. Please discuss any CQI activities or projects that took place during the reporting period. CQI activities could include PDSA cycles, CQI Collaborative activities, CQI team meetings, use of CQI tools, implementation of tests or solutions, collection and analysis of data, sharing of results, etc.

• Please describe the team’s progress on your CQI activities.

• Please describe any CQI accomplishments experienced by your team during the reporting period. For example, did the tests you implemented result in any improvements?

• Please describe any challenges encountered during the CQI process. How did you address these challenges?

• What has your team learned in your CQI projects during the reporting period?

• What are your team’s next steps in your CQI work?

Section 6: Dissemination

Using the table below, please describe your program’s dissemination plan and efforts over the reporting period. You can provide copies of or links to reports or materials developed for dissemination during the reporting period. Relevant dissemination materials and products could include:

• Newsletters (electronic or print)

• Pamphlets, brochures, or fact sheets

• Web- and social media-based products (blogs, podcasts, video clips, etc.)

• Digital stories or videos

• Presentations and posters

What were your dissemination purposes and goals during the reporting year (this does not have to necessarily be what was in you IP but what you prioritized for the reporting period)?	Who are your target audiences for dissemination and information sharing for each goal? Target audiences could include tribal council, the community, families, and funders (local, state, federal, foundations) or others.	What products and materials did you develop and what methods did you use to share them? For instance, did you give a presentation for tribal council? Did you create brochures or marketing materials to recruit families?	What was your message and content?	What were the outcomes of your dissemination efforts? Did they achieve the goals and purposes you intended? Please describe any notable challenges.
Example: Increase self-referrals	Example: Families	Example: Recruitment video for families	Example: Parents have found the [program name] to be a valuable supportive resource to help navigate the learning the growing, the challenges, and the celebrations of parenting.	Example: Played video in 4 referral locations and added it to Facebook. 15% increase in self-referrals Challenge: Video took much longer than anticipated to create.

Section 7: Technical Assistance Supports

Please describe how various technical assistance (TA) supports assisted your program over the last year. TA supports can include support by the ACF federal team as well as contracted TA providers or other entities (e.g., model developers). This information will be very helpful for ACF to assess the effectiveness of TA supports and identify any areas that need attention.

TA Support Needs and Outcomes

• Please describe any barriers or challenges you experienced related to the topics above during the reporting period, for which you needed TA support.

• Please describe any TA support or training you requested and/or received from ACF, Tribal MIECHV programmatic or evaluation technical assistance providers, model developers, or any other source related to the topics above. Were your technical assistance and training needs met? If not, what additional supports would be helpful to you?