Implementing Task Force Recommendations Should Improve VR&E Services

We generally agree with the Task Force’s key findings, which broadly  address three areas of VR&E’s operations. Many of the Task Force’s  recommendations in this area are consistent with GAO’s governmentwide  work reporting that agencies need to strengthen strategic planning and  investment management in information technology. Finally, the Task Force recommended that VR&E strengthen coordination  within VA between VR&E and the Veterans Health Administration, and  between VR&E and the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Labor. VA Continues to Face Significant Challenges in Improving Its VR&E Program

While VR&E responds to the Task Force recommendations, it faces  immediate challenges associated with providing vocational rehabilitation  and employment services to injured servicemembers returning from  Afghanistan and Iraq. VR&E also  lacks the information technology systems needed to manage the provision  of services to these servicemembers and to veterans. In addition, VR&E is  only now beginning to use results-based criteria for measuring its success  in assisting veterans achieve sustained employment. An inherent challenge is that individual differences and  uncertainties in the recovery process make it difficult to determine when a  seriously injured service member will be able to consider VR&E services. Additionally, as we reported in our January 2005 report, given that VA is  conducting outreach to servicemembers whose discharge from military  service is not yet certain, VA is challenged by DOD’s concerns that VA’s  outreach about benefits, including early intervention with VR&E services,  could adversely affect the military’s retention goals. Finally, VA is  currently challenged by a lack of access to DOD data that would, at a  minimum, allow the agency to readily identify and locate all seriously  injured servicemembers. We also reported that VA had taken steps to expedite VR&E services for  seriously injured servicemembers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, the Task Force pointed out that the number of reports that  VR&E’s automated case management system can generate is limited. The Task Force recommended  that VR&E develop a new outcomes-based performance measurement  system to complement the proposed 5-track employment-driven service  delivery system. In its fiscal year 2004 performance and accountability report, VR&E  included four employment-based performance measures: the percentage  of participants employed during the first quarter (90 days) after leaving the  program, the percentage still employed after the third quarter (270 days),  the percentage change in earnings from pre-application to post-program,  and the average cost of placing a participant in employment. However, as  of February 2005, VR&E was still in the process of developing data for  these measures and had not reported results. 15, 2004)
Vocational Rehabilitation: Opportunities to Improve Program  Effectiveness (GAO/T-HEHS-98-87, Feb. 4, 1998)
Veterans Benefits Administration: Focusing on Results in Vocational  Rehabilitation and Education Programs (GAO/T-HEHS-97-148, Jun.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Department of Veterans Affairs' Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VR&E) program has taken on heightened importance due, in large measure, to the number of servicemembers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq with serious injuries and their need for vocational rehabilitation and employment assistance. This statement draws on over 20 years of GAO's reporting on VA's provision of vocational rehabilitation and employment assistance to American veterans and focuses primarily on the results of two recent GAO reports. The first, issued in June 2004, commented on the report of the VA-sponsored VR&E Task Force, which performed a comprehensive review of VR&E activities and made extensive recommendations that, if implemented, would affect virtually every aspect of VR&E's operations. The second, issued in January 2005, focused on the steps VA has taken and the challenges it faces in providing services to seriously injured veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

What GAO Found

The past year has presented the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with an unprecedented opportunity to begin strengthening its provision of vocational rehabilitation and employment services to veterans. The VR&E Task Force has developed a blueprint for the changes needed to improve numerous programmatic and managerial aspects of VR&E's operations. We generally agree with the Task Force's three key findings. We also generally agree with the Task Force's key recommendations to streamline eligibility and entitlement, institute a new employment-driven service delivery process, expand counseling benefits, reorganize and increase VR&E staffing, and improve information technology capabilities and intra- and inter-agency coordination. VR&E faces three overriding challenges as it responds to the Task Force recommendations. First, providing early intervention assistance to injured servicemembers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq is complicated by (1) differences and uncertainties in the recovery process, which make it difficult for VR&E to determine when a servicemember will be able to consider its services; (2) the Department of Defense's (DOD) concerns that VA's outreach could work at cross purposes to the military's retention goals; and (3) lack of access to DOD data that would allow VA to readily identify and locate all seriously injured servicemembers. Second, VR&E needs to upgrade its information technology system. The Task Force report pointed out that VR&E's IT system is limited in its ability to produce useful reports. Third, VR&E needs to use new results-based criteria to evaluate and improve performance. The Task Force recommended that VR&E develop a new employment-oriented performance measurement system, including measures of sustained employment longer than 60 days. In fiscal year 2004, VR&E included four employment-based performance criteria in its performance and accountability report. However, as of February 2005, VR&E had not yet reported results using these longer-term measures.