Witnesses:
Nick Weaver, Head of Pensions
Administration
John Smith, Pension Governance
and Employer Manager
Anna D’Alessandro,
Director - Corporate Finance
Neil Mason, Strategic Finance
Manager (Pensions)
Key
points raised in the discussion:
- The Head of
Pensions Administration emphasised the challenge in addressing the
issues realistically by balancing ongoing projects with the changes
necessary to ensure good performance. He added that small problems
had cumulative impacts on managing the backlog effectively, such as
the recent poor audit report which focused on the migration of the
integrated payroll system, the need to acquire further modules for
Altair in order to make immediate payments and the need to make
adjustments if pay increases were greater than expected. Those
difficulties were exacerbated because a key employee was on
long-term sick leave and the software supplier had been contacted
to provide specialist support.
- Responding
to a Member query, the Head of Pensions Administration explained
that annual events put pressure on the Pensions Administration team
and although there were sufficient resources to manage them,
prioritisation of workstreams was crucial.
- The Head of
Pensions Administration noted the error last year concerning
pensions increases, in which the letter to scheme members only
stated the percentage increase and not the difference between the
old and new pension - and the Pensions Helpdesk were not informed
of the omission. The Head of Pensions Administration and the
Pension Governance and Employer Manager stressed that more
collaborative working between the Pensions Helpdesk and Pensions
Administration team was essential and officers were seeking
assurance for this year’s exercise.
- The
Director - Corporate Finance explained that Internal Audit had
completed two reviews of Pensions Administration over the last year
and were currently formulating a position statement on the service.
Progress was being made behind the scenes and a follow-up audit had
been scheduled. She noted that areas of concern had been identified
which provided clarity going forward. Governance would start to
become more joined up with a monthly project board composed of
senior officers to monitor actions from Internal Audit reports and
the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and the Executive Director
- Resources would be cited on the performance of the Pensions
Administration.
- The Head of
Pensions Administration referred to the first annex of the actions
tracker on Action A6/18 which presented a series of bar charts
illustrating progress against agreed milestones in the service
improvement plan for the first four months. He noted that the
timescales provided were ambitious such as the procurement of the
new system and its implementation later in the year.
- Responding
to a Member, the Pension Governance and Employer Manager commented
that the plans would need to be flexible as it would be difficult
to obtain a temporary extension from the current supplier, Aquila
Heywood. In response to the Chairman, the Head of Pensions
Administration explained that the market had become more
competitive as a result of the new LGPS pension systems procurement
framework which was expected to be implemented shortly.
- Members
questioned whether the Pensions Administration team required
additional capacity to administer the large amount of projects in
the annex on Action A6/18 and the projected timescales. In response
the Head of Pensions Administration explained that empathy with
customers was vital and had to be maintained while administrators
implement the new system and i-Connect - as pensions concerned
sensitive life events.
- The Pension
Governance and Employer Manager identified that recruitment was a
challenge across the LGPS and the Strategic Finance Manager
(Pensions) and the Head of Pensions Administration responded that
the Pensions Administration team were proactively managing and
training their employees. In response to a Member query, the
Director - Corporate Finance highlighted that the consultant ITM
and external supplier JLT provided additional capability to
Pensions Administration, but would follow-up the request for
Internal Audit to quality assure the governance arrangements as
external auditors were doing.
- Responding
to a Member query on whether extra investment was needed, the Head
of Pensions Administration noted that the use of money was
important, an example was increasing efficiency through the two
robots that had been created to process Deferred Benefits and
Deferred into Payment quotations.
RESOLVED:
The Board noted the content of
this report.
Actions/further information to be provided:
Internal Audit will quality
assure the governance arrangements of the Pensions Administration
team.