WIOA State Plan Common Elements

Administrators of the Maine’s core programs had extensive discussions regarding the policies and practices that will enable the state to achieve its strategic objectives. At the beginning of these discussions, it became apparent that establishing the basic operating principles, or the ‘must haves’ of an integrated workforce development system will be essential to creating operational plans that implement the state’s strategies. The principles outline how services can be integrated and delivered to customers of the one-stop system with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness in serving clients, minimizing duplication of efforts, and increasing customer satisfaction.

Following are the stages of customer flow that Maine’s core partner programs developed for one-stop centers.

• Initial Triage
• Intake
• Assessment by one of four core partners
• Services and plan development

Initial Triage —The first point of contact for customer at a one-stop center must be knowledgeable, welcoming and capable of assessing the customer’s needs and circumstances (e.g. does the customer have a disability?). In addition to performing an initial triage (a series of questions to identify what the customer’s needs and where to direct them), the initial contact person, or “navigator” will make the customer feel understood and connected. The navigator is responsible for directing customers to the optimal resources: intake, a specific program (referral) or the information center (self-service).

Intake (the process of gathering the data to determine eligibility)—Maine will have a common intake system where relevant customer data is captured and is electronically available to all partners with the informed consent of the customer. This will reduce the need for customers to fill out intake forms multiple times, thereby increasing efficiency of operations and customer satisfaction. Common intake will also foster greater continuity of service.

Assessment—Because core programs share a common purpose in assessing clients, there has been an effort to eliminate unique assessments and focus instead on an assessment process that is standardized, seamless, and integrated whenever possible. Progress in each area is outlined below.

Maine’s efforts for assessments to be:

• Standardized. Core partners have set standards for assessment tools that are accessible and to be used for specific purposes. Two examples are the CASAS for numeracy and literacy, and the WOWI for career goals)
• Seamless. Electronic CASAS testing enables access to test scores throughout the state and minimizes assessment mistakes and duplications. Through the new W.O.R.K. Services website, core partners can access customer assessments across agencies. Now, customers only take tests when different skills need to be assessed. This modular system of assessment streamlines the customer experience and minimizes duplication of effort
• Integrated. Core Partners have all been trained on the same workforce assessment (the WOWI) and now recognize and understand a customer’s assessment results even when the assessment is administered by another partner. The result is better communication among core partners

Services and Plan Development (getting every customer employed or on a career path)- Currently, a client’s plan is not routinely shared among partners, thus reinforcing the ‘siloed’ nature of the existing system. As part of this unified plan, policies will be developed to enable a client’s service plan to follow them (paper copy or scanned file) when they are referred to a new program.

Policies supporting the enactment of these basic principles

The range of policies listed below will be developed by the WIOA Steering Committee to support the aforementioned ‘must haves’:

• Policies governing and optimizing communication across and among programs and partners to foster better continuity of service and reduce drop-out rates
• Protocols for record or scanned sharing of individualized service plans among partners
• The development of a quasi-standard individualized service plans template; programs are expected to continue to use their proprietary framework
• Policy on standards for assessments and protocols for inter-agency and inter-program assessment sharing
• Policies for professional development to enable the:
  • Development of new skill sets for those operating as navigators
  • Proper reading and interpretation of partner individualized service plans
  • Proper interpretation of intake data
  • Proper use of the front-end software
  • Proper interpretation of assessment data
• Policies governing the development of system improvement measures (communication, dropouts, number of customers referred, etc.).

MOUs will also be further developed and guide work that can be done by and between partners to align services and formalize referral processes and guidelines. Such agreements will also catalog and map out the parts of the workforce development system that will be made up of comprehensive one-stop centers, affiliate one-stop centers, and various other points of service entry, such as partner service sites. The MOUs will be a major tool for articulating specific ways that resources, services, and information will be aligned and integrated and the level and extent to which each partner will jointly serve and or refer an individual customer.

Current policies in place that are to be followed by system partners, include policy

• PY17-01-Nondiscrimination and Accessibility
• PY15-23-Veteran’s Priority of Service
• PY15-20 Change 1-Referring Veteran’s with Significant Barriers to Employment to DVOPs
• PY19-02 Expanded definition of Basic Skill Deficiency
• PY16-04 One-Stop Certification Criteria
• PY19-01 Employer Service Tracking Requirements
• PY16-01 Memoranda of Understanding
• PY19-04 Infrastructure Funding Agreements/ MOU Phase II (DRAFT)

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING & COST SHARING

Core and required partners must collaborate to design and support the local one-stop delivery system and must articulate how they will work together to jointly serve customers and share costs. It must be articulated through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each of the three local workforce boards.

The process requires partners to identify the types and levels of services they offer, the comprehensive, affiliate, and other sites their services can be accessed from, how referrals and customer co-enrollment will be handled, and how resources of each partner will be leveraged and coordinated. In addition to service coordination, local partners must establish cost sharing agreements that at a minimum, delineate how infrastructure costs of the local one-stop system will be supported by each required partner. Local boards act as the lead in negotiating cost sharing and to develop the Infrastructure Funding Agreements. Local areas at an impasse in the agreement process must notify the Bureau of Employment Services who will provide technical assistance and if necessary, implement the state funding mechanism through which the state will impose infrastructure cost sharing requirements for that local area.

The Bureau of Employment services is currently working on a co-enrollment policy that will pertain to all core programs and other programs. The policy will promote co-enrollment and blending of services that are customer centered, seamless to the customer and that will stimulate higher-level collaboration and leveraging of resources between system partners.