Agenda item

1.    That the Committee noted the contents of the report

2.    That the Committee agreed the changes to the Fund’s Administration Strategy Statement

3.    That the Committee agreed that the potential increase in staffing for the Employer Liaison Team would be delegated to the Chairman or, Vice Chairman and senior officers.

Employer Liaison Team

Mrs Burnham gave a presentation about the Employer Liaison Team (ELT) in Kerry Robinson’s absence.  The ELT was set up due to increasing workloads and less resource being available at employers. FCC signed up straight away and Wrexham would be signing up imminently as Kerry Robinson has an appointment with them to finalise the details.

The team is made up of experienced members of the Clwyd Pension Fund administration team. They have approved 4 pension officers but are looking for 2 more pension assistants to support.  Mrs Burnham said she would come back to this point regarding staffing.

Mr Hibbert commented that it seemed like a lot of work and asked if they were feeling the benefits?  Mrs Burnham said it had been hard work and it was hitting the operational team from a resource point of view but going forward they should begin to see some major benefits.  Mr Everett was happy with the Fund’s support as it was the right thing to do in the long term despite short term pressures.

Key Performance Indicators

Mrs Williams and Mrs Beales (Principal Pension Officer) presented a report on the Key Performance Indicators in terms of task management and the “Due Date Plan”. A handout was tabled showing the KPIs for February 2017. It was explained that the system only showed cases from February 2017 as the indicators were driven by the date each case was created not the date of the event (e.g. date of leaving), as the system cannot look at retrospective cases.  Accordingly the KPIs do not currently measure all work that is being completed by the section but in due course they will.

Mrs Beales talked the Committee through the handout explaining that the green areas in the legal section are where cases were 100% met, ambers were 90% met and red were below 90%.  Slightly lower bandings apply for the other two sections due to them being aspirational targets, rather than legal requirements.

A number of points as regards the indicators were made including:

·         Section 1: The system relies on the employer to give the Pension Fund the information so if employer does not tell the team that they have a joiner until 3 months afterwards then the Fund will have already missed the target date.

·         Section 5: These are based on notifications being 1 month after retirement but again this involves waiting for information from the employer. Mrs McWilliam noted that it was a lot of work at first but as the Administration team get more employers using I-connect then these numbers should improve to some degree. Mrs Burnham noted that figures are for all employers, not just those dealt with by the ELT.

Mrs Williams said there was a hold on transfers while they were waiting for GAD factors so although the Fund missed the legal deadline for that KPI she stressed that none of the Pension Funds would have hit it either.

Mr Hibbert commented that the presentation of the data makes it look a lot worse than it is and they need to get a perspective of what the issue is. Maybe for next time the indicators could show improvements made. Mrs McWilliam agreed and said that there will be a rolling 3 month feed so next time’s report will show Feb/Mar/Apr (at least) allowing the Committee to see the trends emerging. 

The Committee then considered the overview showing total cases per month which highlighted the fluctuation in cases each month which makes resource planning difficult  Councillor Wilson asked why the figures from month to month do not follow in terms of starting/ending numbers. It was explained that there could be “new” cases for the previous months (e.g. an historical leaver cases) as they then come through as part of an earlier month’s figures.

Mrs Williams then went through the Due Date Plan which provided an overview of historical cases and the Administration Section’s plans for clearing them.  Mrs Beales said cases with due date prior to 2014 that had queries and were not completed by the target date of 28 February 2017 were due to some members or employers not providing the required information.  However the green highlighted that the Administration Section had completed all their tasks in relation to those cases, meaning that the remaining 57 cases were all with scheme members or employers albeit the team were continuing to monitor and chase for the outstanding information. 

Administration Strategy

Mrs Burnham highlighted the changes that had been made and clarified that the Committee were being asked to approve the updated Administration Strategy. As part of this she highlighted that they were looking to increase the total Pensions Administration team establishment from 28.4 WTE posts to 30.4 WTE posts due to the need to recruit for two Pension Assistants to the Employer Liaison Team.  She highlighted that they are still working through the requirements so would look to the Committee to agree that this could be delegated for agreement to the Chairman or Vice Chairman and senior officers. 

GMP Reconciliation Procurement

Mrs Burnham highlighted the Fund had appointed Equiniti to carry out the GMP reconciliation work.

RESOLVED

1.         That the Committee noted the contents of the report

2.         That the Committee agreed the changes to the Fund’s Administration Strategy Statement

3.         That the Committee agreed that the potential increase in staffing for the Employer Liaison Team would be delegated to the Chairman or, Vice Chairman and senior officers. 

Councillor Rutherford left the meeting at this time.