HSRI briefs Massachusetts subcommittee on National Core Indicators and new State of the Workforce survey

The support subcommittee of the Massachusetts Permanent Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities heard a briefing from the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) on the National Core Indicators (NCI) and HSRI's new State of the Workforce survey. Alex Bernardi of HSRI described NCI as a 30‑year effort to collect service users' feedback and report public benchmarks to states so policy can be driven by quality data. "We need to know what's working and what isn't working," Bernardi said, framing the survey as a feedback loop to test whether policies deliver quality services.

HSRI explained that the State of the Workforce survey collects agency‑level information from provider leadership about wages, turnover and workforce composition. Lindsay Dubois said the survey data cover 01/01/2024–12/31/2024 responses from nearly 4,000 provider agencies across 26 states plus Washington, D.C. HSRI staff offered to share tools and a public HCBS waiver tracker to help states monitor federal and state changes affecting home‑and‑community‑based services (HCBS). The presenters invited follow‑up engagement with Massachusetts officials and advocacy groups to apply the findings to state planning and workforce strategies.