A. BACKGROUND
In keeping with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially articles 23 – 25, every child ought to have universal access to holistic, integrated health care for their optimal growth and development. The goal of Early Childhood Development is to ensure holistic development of the child through the promotion and protection of wellness, utilizing the involvement of the family unit, the health team and the wider community.
The Family Health Unit (FHU) at the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) is committed to streamlining quality assurance activities for programmes and services that cater to children less than 8 years of age, with emphasis on the children 0 to 60 months old and at-risk children. The FHU commenced the implementation of the National Certification Programme for Child Health Services in 2018 to improve the quality of care of children ages birth to six years of ages that access routine well-child services at public health centres across the island. The programme utilizes the Standards and Criteria for Child Health developed through a consultancy under the Jamaica Early Childhood Development Project 2013-2018 and was piloted in July 2018 in thirty-six (36) health centres across four (4) health regions. The child health standards serve as a guide for comprehensive assessment of child health services, determination of certification status for well-child clinics, and assuring quality health services for children in the target group.
The FHU has also collaborated with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its global Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) Project to strengthen Zika-related care and support services, to build the capacity of health care workers to implement a Neurodevelopmental Surveillance (NDS) and Quality Improvement (QI) programme for infants and young children in well-baby clinics affected by the Zika virus. Sixty (60) sites across the island were selected to implement the use of NDS tools to enhance detection and referral of child with suspected developmental delay. QI activities were focus on data collection, reporting, analysis of five selected indicators. The project ends in December 2019, and strategies to safeguard the sustainability of successful project-related activities are being initiative.
One such strategy is the engagement of two (2) full-time Child Health Support Officers to assist with the coordination and execution of activities to facilitate the maintenance and scale-up of both QI activities for the NDS programme as well as the child health certification programme over the next three (3) years.
B. RATIONALE FOR ENGAGEMENT OF SUPPORT OFFICERS
Two (2) Project Officers were engaged from July to September 2018, with support from the World Bank through the Jamaica Early Childhood Development Project 2013-2018, to complete assessment activities for the 32 facilities that were targeted for certification. The FHU needs to continue the engagement of additional officers to provide concentrated and dedicated attention to support the coordination of follow-up and scale-up activities for the certification programme. The engagement of additional expertise and human resource at the national level is also critical for the provision of support to the Regional Health Authorities to achieve the proposed Service Level Agreement target for child health clinic certification.
The achievements of the NDS and QI initiatives under the USAID ASSIST Project would not have been possible without the engagement of Data and Administrative Assistants whose primary responsibility was to provide support to the project team for aspects related to data management and administration. The FHU will require similar support to maintain and sustain these initiatives after the project ends in December 2019.
C. OBJECTIVE
The overall objective of this assignment is to provide technical and administrative support to the FHU and to facilitate the coordination and monitoring, implementation and scale-up activities for
- the National Certification Programme for Child Health Services
- the Neurodevelopmental Surveillance and Quality Improvement initiatives
D. SCOPE OF WORK
- Assist the FHU technical team with development, coordination and scale-up of the child health certification programme:
- Provide logistic support for planning, preparation and execution of training and sensitization sessions
- Maintain a register of health facilities that have been selected for implementation of the National Certification Programme
- Liaise with the quality assurance teams in the Regional Health Authorities and assist them with development and submission of Plans of Action for selected health facilities that have conducted pre-assessment
- Prepare tools, forms and other documents for assessment activities, including Certificates of Commitment for health facilities, assessment instruments, etc
- Monitor and document the progress of health facilities toward attaining certification
- Prepare and monitor the schedule of assessment visits and the roster for assessors
- Visit selected well-child clinics to monitor local assessment activities
- Prepare and complete facility assessment reports for the National Certification Programme
- Assist the FHU technical team with the coordination and scale-up of the quality improvement activities for the neurodevelopmental surveillance in child health clinics
- Provide logistic support for planning, preparation and execution of training, sensitization and learning sessions
- Liaise with quality improvement teams in the Regional Health Authorities and assist them with data collection and analysis for the agreed indicators
- Conduct periodic data collection site visits in accordance with agreed indicators
- Organize quality improvement data in excel spreadsheets and/or access data base, including data entry from primary paper-based sources
- Ensure data quality and verification with facilities (as needed)
- Support periodic data reporting as guided by the FHU technical team
- Maintain documentation for the initiative
- Ensure proper maintenance and timely updates of the inventory and supplies for the initiative
- Any other duties assigned by the FHU that support the achievement of the objective.
E. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
Qualifications
- A Bachelor’s Degree in the social sciences, health, or education or related discipline, or any equivalent combination of qualifications and experience related to the assignment
- Good organizational skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent organizational and time management skills
- Ability to establish and coordinate effective working relationships with various stakeholders
- Ability to work within a team under pressure and within strict deadlines
- Valid driver’s licence
- Reliable motor vehicle
Professional Experience
- Familiarity with the Jamaica’s public health system, specifically child health services and/or programmes
- Excellent command of Microsoft Office applications
- Working experience within the Ministry of Health and Wellness would be considered an asset
- Experience in the programme development and implementation would be an asset
F. CONTRACT – DURATION AND TYPE
Two (2) independent contracts are being solicited as follows:
Type of Assignment: Service Contract – individual
Start Date: January 2020
Duration: Three (3) years
Place of Work: Ministry of Health and Wellness, Jamaica
G. SUPERVISION
The Support Officers will be indirectly supervised by the Director of Family Health, and work under the direct guidance and supervision of the Programme Development Officer responsible for Child Health in the Family Health Unit at the MOHW, who will be the Coordinator for the service contracts.
The Support Officers will also work closely with the FHU team, Health Systems Support and Monitoring (HSSM) Unit and Regional Health Authorities.
The Support Officers will submit a work plan, reports, programme documents and activity sheets in a timely manner to the supervisor for approval.
H. LOGISTICS
The Support Officers will be provided with office accommodation and support at the offices of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, RKA Building 10 -16 Grenada Way, Kingston, Jamaica.
I. KEY DELIVERABLES
| Tasks | Deliverables |
| Monitor and support implementation of child health standards and NDS QI coaching health facilities | Workshop reports
Site monitoring reports
|
| Coordinate assessments and supervisory for health facilities | Certificates of Commitment
Assessment and supervisory visit schedule
|
| Collate health facility assessment and quality improvement data | Assessment reports for each facility
QI reports for each facility
Updated certification register
|
J. RECRUITMENT
The positions will be publicly advertised. Interested candidates will be required to submit a curriculum vitae (CV), technical proposal outlining the approach and methodology to achieve the objective for the project, and a financial proposal. Three (3) candidates will be short-listed. The CVs and proposals submitted will be reviewed by an evaluation panel and the candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
| Criteria | Score |
| Professional Qualifications | 20 |
| General Experience | 15 |
| Specific and Relevant Experience | 15 |
| Technical Proposal | 10 |
| Financial Proposal | 20 |
| Overall Suitability for Assignment | 20 |
| TOTAL | 100 |
Candidates that meet the minimum requirement (score of at least 70%) will be short-listed. The candidates that are ranked first and second by the evaluation panel will be selected.
K. PAYMENT AND REMUNERATION
The successful candidate will be employed full-time on a contractual basis for a period of 3 years. The consultancy fee, food and board, mileage and incidentals are included in the payment package
Procurement for workshops, meetings and other implementation and scale-up activities will be the responsibility of the FHU.
The Ministry of Health & Wellness reserves the rights to accept or reject any or all bids or to re-tender, without thereby incurring any liability to the Bidders.