Agenda item

The Board is asked to note the content of this report and make recommendations if any further action is required.

Witnesses:

David John, Audit Manager

Andrew Marson, Pensions Lead Manager

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Board heard from the Pensions Lead Manager, who explained that a lot of work had taken place in response to the concerns raised at the last meeting. There had been a wide and varied level of engagement, and the Pensions Lead Manager was pleased with the progress made and the level contained within the plans. The service was now at a place where it was able to step into the delivery of the Service Improvement Plan.

2.    Referring to the outstanding cases detailed on page 62, the Chairman said that it was difficult to identify whether tasks held as uncategorised were new or old and asked the Board to keep a close eye on how the number of outstanding cases were diminishing. In response, the Pensions Lead Manager explained that, in addition to the KPI reporting, he wanted to develop a single-page view of whether cases were new or related to legacy issues, which would allow the Board to see the overall totals coming down more clearly.

3.    A Member questioned whether any of the outstanding pieces of work could generate more than one task per case and was told by the Pensions Lead Manager that the service was experiencing a ripple effect as they worked through the cases. There were almost 11,000 cases where officers knew there was a job to be done, and there had been a significant step up in the refund cases, with 10,968 of those being able to be progressed to the next stage. In there, there could well be additional jobs to action, with most cases being solitary but around 1 in 10 creating new ones.

4.    The Board discussed the internal audit actions highlighted on page 99 and were told by the Pensions Lead Manager that in the months prior to the introduction of the second stage of the Service Improvement Plan, the Pensions Administration team had been carrying out a number of improvements to the service. In response to the internal audit findings, a project board of senior officers tracked the service’s progress. The next stage was to make sure all of those actions had been mapped into the new plan.

5.    Members heard from the Audit Manager, who explained that the original audit had timescales for actions between the end of June and September 2019, but it became evident that the time required was a lot longer and these had been revised. He went on to say that auditors would prepare a position statement audit in Q3 to provide both management and the Board with assurance that the direction of travel reported was underpinned by solid evidence. A full audit of the Pension Administration service would then take place in early Q1 the next financial year, as that would be an appropriate time to check that controls were fully in place. It was subsequently agreed that the Audit Manager would attend future Board meetings to provide updates.

6.    Responding to a question about the systems review, the Pensions Lead Manager explained that the framework should be set up and in place for April 2020. The service was also planning to seek a modification to the contracts as they stand in order to give more breathing space for a full procurement process.

7.    Turning to the increasing use of robotics, the Board heard that significant user testing had taken place and validation processes had been passed. Senior officers were going to carry out assessments and report back on the quality of the work.

8.    The Pensions Lead Manager spoke about the draft communications strategy and explained to the Board that it was produced in response to the Fund’s. It provided clarification on the service’s method of communication and timescales, as well as more information about delivery.

9.    The Chairman requested that draft versions of future member newsletters were presented to the Board.

10.  Discussing presentations, roadshows and seminars, the Pensions Lead Manager explained that support had been given to events such as retirement seminars, where members were presented with opportunities to ask questions. He also highlighted the information contained on the website and support that can be provided by the pensions helpdesk.

11.  The Chairman suggested that newsletters were sent out around the time of annual statements, and that guidance was sought as to whether workshops were needed and what topics would be beneficial to explore in greater detail.

12.  The Board noted the complaints update for Q3 and welcomed the End of Year and Annual Benefit Statement Review, which the Chairman said provided the Board with a lot of detailed information. He also congratulated the Pensions Administration service on meeting the deadline.

13.  Speaking about the pensions helpdesk, the Pensions Lead Manager informed the Board that a video on annual benefit statements had been produced for the website and members had been signposted to that. The service was confident it had reduced the number of phone calls to the helpdesk.

14.  Moving on to Annex 6, the Pensions Lead Manager told Members that they were close to finalising the GMP project. Most cases had been matched, but there were some stalemate cases where investigation work would be required. The Pensions Administration team was almost ready to start communicating with members, as well as dealing with under and overpayments and the recalculation of benefits. The plan was to do that from April 2020.

Actions/further information to be provided:

1.    The Pensions Lead Manager is to author a single-page view of whether cases were new or related to legacy issues.

2.    Draft versions of future member newsletters are to be presented to the Board.

Resolved:

The Board noted the report.