Post on 31-Dec-2015
It’s about your family.
It’s about your career.
It’s about you.
Presented To:
Family Service Ontario Conference
Presented By:
Brad Davis, Executive Director Family Services Kent
Don Pitt, Executive Director Family Counselling Centre
May 8, 2014
Erie St. Clair fseap
Overview
What prompted our Partnership?
How did we develop a proposal?
What did we learn?
How is the program working?
The Relationship
Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent had existing
relationships with area health care facilities
Windsor-Essex was a previous provider for one facility (lost
contract to Sheppell)
Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent had partnered previously
on School Board Contract and other contracts
Sarnia-Lambton, Chatham-Kent and Windsor-Essex
historically have met to collaborate, share information and
consult
Why our relationship is strong
Three Executive Directors all hired around the
same time
Only Family Service agency in each area
Previously have worked on joint-programming
Sarnia-Lambton and Chatham-Kent invested in
maintaining the contract for local health facilities
The Plan
Develop a singular response to the RFP as fseap
Keep the work/Get the work
Speak with our current Health Service / Hospital
EAP contract contacts about the RFP
What we did..
Decided to brand the proposal as Erie St. Clair fseap (matched
LHIN area)
Registered the business name Erie St. Clair fseap (consulted with
National Management Board first for permission)
Developed a joint venture agreement to clarify the limits of this
work (this was an internal document for the FS partners only—not
for the health care facilities)
Hired the national office of fseap to write the response to the RFP
Agreed amongst the three agencies to pay each other a higher
rate than the fseap nationally prescribed rate of $66.00
Outcome—We Got the Contract!
Awarded a five year contract
Windsor-Essex had to quickly create capacity to deliver services
(purchase rack cards, magnets, hire new affiliates)
For Family Services Kent & Family Counselling Centre it was
largely business as usual with a new contract
How the work is progressing
Just commenced year 3 of the contract
We actually operate fairly independently as agencies
Outside of the master agreement, each FS agency set up a
separate Addendum with their local Health Service agency /
Hospital to address local priorities and enabled flexibility
Payments are made to each individual FSO based on the
individual addendum
Lessons Learned
Our partnership was stronger than we had initially thought
There are ways to bid for work without compromising our
corporate structure (register a business name, joint venture
agreements)
Our approach to work is flexible
Local connections, quality service and reputation are important
We have the capacity to support each other to grow our
businesses
What we did really wasn’t innovative—it was practical and made
good business sense
Question?
It’s about your family.
It’s about your career.
It’s about you.