Providing
High-Quality Services

Providing high-quality services is a core tenant of the Title X family planning program. The program has long emphasized the delivery of evidence-based, person-centered sexual and reproductive health care grounded in the latest clinical evidence and nationally recognized standards of care, including the 2024 Quality Family Planning Services (QFP) guidelines. As health care and payment reform models continue to evolve, quality measurement and improvement remain a top priority in advancing equitable, inclusive, and high-quality care.

At a time of significant change across the service delivery landscape, publicly funded family planning providers are balancing increasing operational demands with a continued commitment to equitable, evidence-based, person-centered care. Strengthening workflows, reducing administrative burden, and improving efficiency are important strategies for maintaining access, supporting staff, and meeting patients' evolving needs. Developing and maintaining evidence-based clinical protocols also helps promote consistency in care delivery, support quality improvement efforts, and ensure services reflect current clinical standards and best practices.

Patient-centered, coordinated care remains a fundamental component of the 2024 QFP recommendations and standards for high-quality care. Quality recognition and value-based care programs provide health care organizations with frameworks to strengthen clinical quality, patient experience, health equity, and care coordination. These programs facilitate the use of data, performance measurement, and continuous quality improvement strategies to improve care over time, while also offering external validation of providers' commitment to high standards of care.

The family planning network depends on a strong, well-supported public health workforce to provide high-quality, equitable care. In recent years, providers have faced growing workforce challenges — including shortages, burnout, increased administrative burdens, and persistent barriers to recruitment and retention, particularly in underserved and rural communities. At the same time, demand for family planning and sexual health services continues to grow amid ongoing threats to reproductive health access and widening health inequities.

Publicly funded family planning providers must be supported in implementing innovative workforce strategies, including expanding training opportunities, strengthening provider pathways, investing in culturally responsive care, and improving compensation and workplace supports. Efforts should also prioritize recruiting and retaining providers who reflect and are rooted in the communities they serve, helping to strengthen trust, improve patient experiences, and advance health equity.

NFPRHA believes that all people should have access to high-quality, comprehensive, and medically accurate sexuality education that is applicable for LGBTQIA+ people and uplifts sexual freedom as a normal human experience. Sexuality education should include — at developmentally appropriate levels of detail — information about sexual development throughout the lifetime; sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression; achieving and preventing pregnancy; STI and HIV prevention and treatment; pregnancy options; healthy relationships; and sexual violence including the importance of affirmative consent.

NFPRHA recognizes the need for sexuality education to extend beyond the classroom and continue across the lifespan. Family planning and sexual health providers champion sexuality education and have an important role in its delivery to people of all ages. Parental or trusted adult involvement may be encouraged but should never be required — providers must be able to discuss family planning and sexual health information with patients confidentially and without restriction.

NFPRHA supports continued federal funding for high-quality, comprehensive, and medically accurate sexuality education, and urges investments in research to improve existing federal initiatives and expand sustainable programming in clinical and community-based settings.