Delaware Health And Social Services DIVISION OF MANAGEMENT SERVICES PROCUREMENT DATE: JANUARY 05, 2009 PSC#845 TRAINING DEVELOPMENT FOR DIVISION OF PUBLIC HEALTH Date Due: FEBRUARY 02, 2009 11:00 AM ADDENDUM # 1 PLEASE NOTE THE ATTACHED SHEETS HEREBY BECOME A PART OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED BID. ___________________________ SANDRA S. SKELLEY, CPPO,CPPB PROCUREMENT ADMINISTRATOR (302)255-9291 _____________________________ NICOLE QUINN (302) 223 -1720 Training Development RFP PSCO-845 Pre-bid Meeting January 5, 2009 Question and Answers Q1. Can we send Fed-ex Packages? A1. If you send Fed-ex or UPS or any other carrier…please specify main building, room 259 and the full address. Please stress to them that it has to be here before 11. Make sure you track it for delivery. You can also call Sandra Skelley to see if your package has arrived. Q2. Is this strictly a development grant, which has no delivery obligation beyond the pilot phase? A2. Correct. We just want to pilot courses to make any necessary changes before the training is finalized. Q3. How many people do you anticipate will be trained in each class? For each course? A3. We anticipate small training classes for the pilot course, to consist of the pre-development team and a few other leaders that might have an interest. Once the course is finalized, each course will be available to 1500 DPH employees and other partners that have a stake in each of the plans. Q4. Will each of the 13 programs (A-M) need to be piloted before they are considered final and complete? A4. Yes. Q5. What is the budget range for this project? A5. $200,000 Q6. To ensure that we meet our development standards for course quality, can the development timeline be extended beyond 6 months if we have begun the piloting on a priority-based subset courses that have been developed? A6. This RFP is going out under the ASPR Hospital Preparedness Grant, the grant technically closes on August 8, 2009, which we have extended the end of this contract through August. We normally do get an extension every year of our grant, we anticipate getting one if that is allowed then we will be able to allow this contract to extend. However, at this time, I would have to say no past August 31, 2009. Q7. Is that part of the two-year extension where it says in here 6 months with possibility of continuance for 2 years? A7. The funding is based purely on the ASPR grant and the project is supposed to be completed during the project period. So if the project period is extended and we see need to extend the contract then we can do that but if the project period is not extended then we cannot extend the contract. Q8. Are all program materials B-G (Course Overview, Instructor’s Manual, Student’s Manual, PowerPoint Presentation, Resource CD) required for each course (A-M)? A8. Yes, this format is designed for the instructor to be ready to teach with all of the materials. The course overview informs the instructor of how long each unit will take in time and will layout the structure of the class in a timeline. It will inform the instructor of any materials needed and can even outline instructor qualifications. The instructor manual can refer to each PPT slide and provide talking points. The student manual can also provide the slides to the student with notes so they do not have to take as many in class and will give any instructions/forms for activities. ***Comment from Joe: I brought with me a sample of a course that has already been developed. It does not have the CD in it or the PowerPoint slides with it . I do not know that you necessarily have to put the PowerPoint slides in here because the CD already has that PowerPoint on there. I think that is what she is proposing here that the slides can be printed for class reviews. Q9. Are you planning for a sole source contractor or will different contractors be selected to develop a subset of selected programs? A9. One contractor can do all of these. One contractor is expected to be selected. Q10. How will the contract monitoring mentioned on page 20 be carried out? If this is a development grant only, what about the development will be monitored? A10. When we develop, the contract it is anticipated that we will go based on benchmarks and timelines. Based on that timeline we will identify benchmarks with you as well as a payment schedule. As you meet those benchmarks, we can monitor the development and then we can approve payment of course as those benchmarks are met. Q11. For the additional courses requested on page 11, would those be developed under a new contract? A11. I know there was a proposal or someone had suggested that you could put a cost estimate in there. Depending on what your saying if your just identifying that the American Red Cross put out a course for free and you identify that, we wouldn’t consider that as course development but if there is another course that we identify during the contract that needs to be developed and we agree in the contract how much that will cost. I do not know that we would need a contract amendment but I think the most we would do is a contract amendment. I do not think we would have to do a completely new contract to include that course. Q12. So for any other additional courses beyond what is listed there we can put a per course cost as an option? A12. Yes you can it is about how you want to propose it. How much does it really cost you to put a course together? Is it just materials or is it time and materials. I guess you would have to put a dollar figure on Time, Materials, and research. I do not know how you would develop that but if you want to just put in an estimate for each additional course that is going to require each of these components that would be great. That would be an optional line because we do not know if there is going to be additional courses developed at this time. So if you want to add that to your proposal please do. Q13. I just want to make sure I understand, so you are saying if the bidder suggests the development of additional courses to compliment the courses. A13. What we intend is that as we are going through this project. We may very well identify more courses. As the development team identifies additional courses and they say o.k. we also want you to develop this, this, and this. Therefore, what I am proposing that you put in there that it will cost this amount for any additional course. I realize that is difficult to do without knowing what type of course it might be. That is why I am suggesting, in my mind I am thinking time, research, materials, I just do not know how you would come up with a figure like that but that is how I would do it. Q14. Please confirm the initial contract is for six months, not five months as stated on page 19. A14. As Sandra confirmed, this is typo, the contract is for 6 months not 5 months. However, What I just told you was August 31, 2009 is the end date of our contract period for our budget period. So if we start with April one, Then September 30 would actually be the end of the six months. Our grant ends August 09, 2009; I am going to have to ask approval to extend the contract until August 30, 2009. I do anticipate extended the grant itself so the answer to your question is it is for Six months. I am just going to have to get approval to extend the project period. I see no objection to getting that done. Q15. Who will be the attendees at the pilot courses? Will they be PHPS staff or general DPH staff or others? A15. (See also Q3&A3.) PHPS means Public Health Preparedness Section and DPH is the Division of Public Health. The most important attendees of the pilot are the pre-development group. This may include PHPS, DPH, or other partners. Others may attend the pilot training and we would like it to remain open to others aside from the pre-development group. Q16. Can courses be piloted with one to two per day or on consecutive days for efficiency and budget considerations or will each have to be a separate event on a separate day? A16. We can schedule a few per day or consecutively. This is very flexible. It is entirely up to the group, between the Vendor and the pre-development team. Q17. Several courses appear to be candidates for posting on the DE TRAIN Learning Management System. Should the contractor provide an optional line item for preparing these courses for posting to DE TRAIN? A17. No, we do not want any online courses at this time. Q18. A requirement under IV.5 (Programs) states that “The contractor shall develop additional courses as part of this package, for any additional courses that are identified in support of the learning plan…” Does PHPS have a number of courses in mind or should the contractors provide an optional line item for additional course development? A18. (See also Q & A’s 11,12,13) PHPS conducted a needs assessment prior to developing the RFP. The results of that needs assessment is within the RFP. However, we recognize that additional needs will emerge as we go through this process. We do not know at this time what those needs for additional courses will be. It is also possible that those additional courses may not need to be developed and they are already available in the community (i.e. AED training). Q19. Under IV.5 (Programs), is the contractor responsible for developing a learning plan just for the SHOC positions or for all positions with Job Action Sheets referenced in the other programs (RSS, ACC, NEHC)? A19. This is for all positions within SHOC. SHOC is State health Operation Center. Essentially, what type of training does a transportation driver need in order to do his job? He may need to take the NEHC course but he may also need to take a course that teaches him how to hook up a hitch. Q20. Under IV.5.C.(c) the classification is marked as For Official Use Only/Classified. Will this program require a higher level of clearance then the other programs? A20. Our plans are classified into three categories, Public, FOUO, and Classified. It is possible that the trainings will also have to be classified. The pre-development team should determine this. Q21. I just wanted to confirm that the contracted agency would be conducting the Pilot? Is that correct? Or, will it just be there Materials used by agency instructor to conduct Pilot? A21. Contractor will facilitate the Pilot course but I would also think that we would want to make sure that our instructors could facilitate the course based on your materials. ***Comment made that the answer to these questions must be responded to by January 12, 2009. Sandra Skelley will also have them posted on the web and we can email the answers to each of you provided we have your email addresses. Q22. Was this program modeled after an existing program? Or is it something that is entirely new to the agency? A22. It is entirely new to the agency but they have been modeled these after the FEMA courses and many of the FEMA courses are on-line and if you would like to look at them as an example please do so. Q23. The plans on which these various courses are based are relatively new for you guys, have they been exercised or are there any plans to exercise? A23. Yes, we have exercised them Q24. So, do we know these plans are working presently? A24. Yes, all of the plans have been exercised in one manner or another and after-action reports have been completed and after-action has taken place. Q25. Would we have access to these After-action reports? A25. You should have access to the most recent plans, which would have all the improvement corrections in them. After Action, reports are to be done within 90 days with most of them. The improvements are to be done within a year or something like that. Therefore, you would have access to the most recent drafts. Q26. In the proposal, there was language about a 2-year add-on contract period can you speak a little bit more about what you anticipate might be the goals for that. A26. Well, I think that is primarily Boilerplate terminology. In this case, it is in there just in case we have the need to extend the contract. It is not a guarantee that it will be extended. The expectation at this time is that the scope of service will be completed within the six-month period. Q27. There is some language about modular units, can you provide an example of what you are envisioning a unit might look like? A27. The actual trainings are sectioned off specifically, for example, the one brought to the pre-bid meeting is about awareness training. It is very high level for public knowledge. The units deal with specific aspects of that. Other units may include actual exercises I know Nicole was very big on bringing in some form of interactive program into the actual training much more so then just having a power point and having a regular training. On top of that also are units that may just be encompassed by a test or a quiz or something to give knowledge or test the knowledge of the people going through the training. Q28. In the hands-on exercises, are they to follow the HSEEP guidelines. A28. We are just trying to get something that would be open to the actual public in terms of them actually getting something out of it but in terms of it not being too specific. Most of exercises have to comply with HSEEP requirements, which you were referring to. Q29. I was curious about length for these individual courses. A29. I think it depends on the course. Like the awareness course, we brought as an example is about a ninety- five minute course. In the table of contents or course overview it does give an estimate of time and training contents that way we have a good idea of what kind of time we need or what length of time we might need to reserve a room for. Some may be full day courses, and some may be two day courses. Like I said the awareness one is a ninety-five minute course. I really think it depends on the course. Additional Questions received by email on 12/30/08, but not available or discussed at the Pre-Bid meeting: Q30. Does DHP envision all training to be instructor led (classroom) or are they open to technology- based training where appropriate? A30. Yes, all training should be instructor-led. Q31. Are the DHP instructors certified and/or professional trainers? A31. Instructors are not certified; however, their job classification is “trainer/educator.” Q32. Who is the target audience to the training? A32. All Division of Public Health employees and partners, which can consist of volunteers, other state agencies, and private agencies. It is a diverse group. Q33. For each course, will there be versions for each level of training (i.e. awareness)? A33. Only one version should be developed for each course. It is possible that the pre-development team will see otherwise. Q34. Is there a hierarchy for this curriculum or are all courses standalone? A34. Standalone. Q35. Do any of these courses already exist in some manner or is this new development effort? A35. Yes, there are materials we have drafted mostly in the form of PPT presentations. You are welcome to these materials. Q36. Are there any targeted lengths for these courses? For instance, each course shall be no more than 2 days of Instructor led delivery. A36. No target. Whatever is needed to meet the objectives. Q37. Is all training to be developed in the initial contract period? A37. Yes Q38. Can DPH provide a sample course that is already in use prior to proposal submission? A38. Yes, partially. You will receive a Course Description and a PowerPoint Presentation.. Q39. Can DPH provide and any curriculum design standards or style guides prior to proposal submission? A39. Yes, you will receive the internal procedure for training development; however, development may be altered when courses are developed by a contractor. Q40. Is there a page limit for the RFP response? A40. No, only if it is designated in the RFP. Q41. Is the only “budget” submission requirement for design/development of one hour of instructor led training and supporting materials? A41. Vendors must submit a line-item budget describing how the funds will be utilized. Budget should include an amount per hour along with an estimation of time per activity. Q42. Section V. Special Terms and Conditions (1) Length of Contract- RFP reads “Contract term is six (5) months….” Is the period of performance six months or five months? A42. Six months Q43. What is the current number of identified positions within the SHOC with a job action sheet? A43. 104 Job Action Sheets in the plan 1 of 6