Strengthening Families’ Economic Wellbeing: Lessons from Connecticut’s Outcomes Rate Card

Key Highlights

Challenges

New parents want to provide high–quality care for their children and economic stability for their family, but there can be a lack of coordination between all publicly funded resources across government programs. Additionally, traditional government contracts distribute funding based on services rendered rather than results achieved. For example, OEC previously paid home visiting providers based on the number of staff hired rather than the number of families that actually received home visiting services.  

Opportunities

The OEC’s outcomes rate card initiative directs funding toward the best ways to set up families for success and evaluates whether success has been achieved. Through its rate cards, the OEC is funding outcomes, not inputs.

Rate cards are a set of metrics specifying desired outcomes and the amount of payment for each metric achieved. Gathering data on criteria such as obtaining a quality job, stable housing, or having a healthy birthing experience allows government entities (including the OEC) to discuss the successes and challenges of different programs and to use the rate card data to improve outcomes.

Findings and Next Steps

• The rate cards provide a much better understanding of state-level performance on systemwide priorities. For example, some key metrics did not improve in this test, suggesting that home visits alone are not enough to enhance families’ economic security.
• Improvement of families’ financial security requires coordinated effort across various government agencies. To strengthen its programs, the OEC will consult community participants, accompany each metric with a performance standard, increase staff support, and align internal teams with corresponding accountability mechanisms.