Vocational Rehabilitation: Better VA Management Needed to Help Disabled Veterans Find Jobs

During FY1998, a task force was created to study policies and procedures related to contracting for rehabilitation services. VBA's renamed Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) Service used the study to develop a national acquisition strategy (NAS) with the goal of bringing greater consistency, effectiveness and efficiency to the vocational rehabilitation programs.

VR&C partnered with DOL to expand and improve employment services for veterans who are job-ready. A cooperative training program for VR&C and DOL staffs was conducted in 1998 and 1999; additional joint training programs are planned for fiscal years 2000 and 2001. Both national and state cooperative agreements have been developed with state rehabilitation agencies for obtaining employment assistance from state agencies. VA believes that the soon-to-be-completed National Acquisition strategy, based on the work of a task force, will bring about "improved consistency, effectiveness and efficiency" in the job placement services provided by contractors.

During FY2000, VR&E conducted a customer survey, in which veterans provided reasons for withdrawing or interrupting their participation. The most common reasons were "primarily personal," such as medical problems, family responsibilities and difficulties, their disability, and financial hardships. VA also contracted with Booz-Allen & Hamilton to conduct a program outcomes study involving both veterans who successfully completed their vocational rehabilitation program and those who did not, as well as to compare VR&E program outcomes with those of similar programs for disabled and nondisabled persons. Booz-Allen concluded that "both demographic variables and veterans' attitudes influence program outcomes."

VR&E has begun several initiatives to reduce the attrition rate, such as: (1) improving veteran access to VR&E field staff through relocation of staff to veteran population centers and at military pre-discharge centers, providing additional office hours, and the use of teleconferencing; (2) a case management approach that focuses field staff's time on the veterans in need of the most help; and (3) involving employers at the beginning of a veteran's rehab program, thus aligning program services with needs of employers and focusing veterans on employment throughout their program.

A September 1999 VA memo notes that as part of the Veterans Benefits Administration's (VBA's) work to develop balanced scorecards to measure performance across its business lines, VR&C implemented performance measures and goals nationwide in October 1998. VR&C subsequently made some changes to the scorecard during the fiscal year, and will continue to do so. The memo states that scorecard data show improvements in the rehabilitation rate.