Agenda item

The Committee noted the update.

            Mrs Williams presented this update on administration and communication progress since November. She presented the progress on Business Plan items for the 2022-23 year including:

-       A6, the policies and strategies review, was behind plan due to workload and changes to pension tax allowances announced in the recent budget

-       A9, the refreshed communications strategy - the new branding will be in use from 1^st April. A notification of the change was distributed to members alongside the Member Satisfaction Survey with over 300 paper responses and over 500 electronic responses received to date. From the electronic responses, 44 volunteers had come forward for the Member Focus Groups with paper responses still being collated.

            Mrs Williams highlighted recent developments including:

-       An update on the McCloud Programme. The SAB had published guidance regarding how funds should proceed where data is not received from an employer, as well as guidance for data validation. Mrs Williams will be arranging a meeting for the McCloud steering group in May.  Validation processes are already in place and these would be reviewed in light of the SAB guidance.

-       CARE revaluation – The pensions increase of 10.1% was in the process of being applied to benefits from April. This was a substantial area of work.

-       Workflow monitoring has been carried out for several years and helped the fund to identify pressure areas.  Further analysis is being carried out to help predict future workflows and the results will be shared at Committee in June. However, due to increasing complexity of cases and additional steps involved, monitoring workflow on a like-for-like basis year on year is becoming more difficult.

-       There was a very positive response to the recent recruitment drive to administration vacancies and the team identified more suitable candidates than there were vacancies. An urgent delegation was successfully put through to avoid missing the recruitment opportunity, resulting in an influx of diverse work experience within the team. Not all of the five additional positions were appointed to, so the remainder will be advertised as part of the project team review.

            Cllr Swash commented in relation to the recent communications regarding the branding and Member Satisfaction Survey. He raised a concern about the cost and environmental impact of sending these out on paper and asked why some were sent on paper and others via email. Mrs Williams clarified that paper communications are sent only if this is the Member’s recorded preference.

RESOLVED:

The Committee noted the update.