Agenda and minutes

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked the Democratic Services Officer to read out the Emergency Evacuation Procedure.

The Democratic Services Officer informed the Board that apologies had been received from Jon Evans (Employer Representative) and Alison Wyatt (Member Representative).

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

There were none.

The Board approved the minutes of the previous meeting and they were duly signed by the Chair.

The purpose of this report is to present the Fund’s administration performance for the period up to and including 30^th April 2025 vs key performance indicators (KPI’s).

The Pensions Operations Manager introduced the report to the Board and highlighted the following points.

·  Recruitment – The fund has successfully recruited 11 new officers joining the Operations and Business Change teams in the last month, 10 of which were in Administration. This leaves a further 4.5 vacant posts including 1 within Business Change team, recruitment is ongoing.

·  McCloud - The team are on track to complete the known McCloud cases before the 31st August. We have remediated more than 2/3rds of the 360 pensioner cases identified and have also completed the death cases, trivial commutations and certain types of transfers out (Non club and interfunds). There are still some complex cases to work through including club transfers and divorce cases.

SLA monthly performance average April 2024 to April 2025

·  Average at around 80%

·  High influx of member inquiries had an impact on staff resources. Letters sent re: McCloud and tracing a factor in the increase.

·  Team is working as hard as ever and we remain above our projected expectations.

Total KPI’s outstanding – Apr 2024 to Apr 2025

·  1897 (as at 27/4/25) – This figure did rise a little but is now decreasing.

KPI’s outstanding over 31 days – Apr 2024 to Apr 2025

·  Around 300 as of 2/6/25

·  Pensions Increase led to additional work required.

Service performance – plan v’s actual

·  The Fund remains ahead of the plan as of Q4 2025.

The Head of Pensions commented that when they had began this work, around 18 months ago, they knew that there would be ups and downs. He said that the team should be proud for maintaining their progress of performance and that he expected it to continue to improve.

Councillor Toby Simon referred to the Pensions Increase and asked if there were any workarounds in terms of the end of year processing.

The Pensions Operations Manager replied that there was not at the moment and was something they need to work on with their software provider.

The Chair asked if the recent officer visit to Worcester had been useful.

The Member Services Manager replied that they had been able to have an open conversation with their staff and had welcomed the information that had been shared.

The Digital Services Manager added that they had demonstrated the use of iConnect and discussed the subjects of automation and workflow.

The Project Officer said that it had been a productive meeting as they were in phase 1 of implementing the Pensions Dashboard.

The Chair commented that he felt it would be good to keep the dialogue ongoing.

Status 2 Backlog

·  Status 2’s – What are they?

o  Status 2 = Undecided leaver

o  We have been told by an employer via their monthly data return that a post has ended, but there could be a number of reasons that leave them as a Status 2

·  Why do they sit as Status 2?

o   We are waiting for:

o  A member decision

o  Information from another fund or scheme

o  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

The purpose of this report is to update the Pension Board on the latest position concerning the Local Government Pension Scheme [LGPS] and any proposed regulatory matters that could affect scheme administration. 

The Governance & Risk Advisor introduced the report to the Board and highlighted the following areas.

Pensions Review - Pooling / Brunel

The Fund received a letter from the Government in April 2025 that stated that the Brunel pool’s proposals did “not meet the Government’s vision for the future of the LGPS” and issued an “invite” to the Fund to consider and identify a new pool to work with going forward.

On 12 May 2025, following on from the statement issued in April 2025 in response to the letter issued by the Government regarding the Brunel (and Access) pools and an urgent meeting convened by the Board on 9 May, the Scheme Advisory Board issued a letter to both the Pensions Minister and the Local Government Minister requesting an extension to the pooling deadlines already in place given the “perfect storm” administering authorities are currently facing with McCloud, Pensions Dashboard, General Code, Local Government Reorganisation and also changes emerging from the local elections.

A meeting between LGPS Committee Chairs, SAB and the Local Government Minister took place on 13 May 2025 to discuss the issues raised in the letter.

New consultation: Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales: Access and fairness

The government has published a new consultation around LGPS, concerning access and fairness. The consultations proposed operational changes will impact LGPS administrators.

The Board RESOLVED to note the current position regarding the developments that could affect the administration of the fund.

The purpose of this report is to update the Pension Board with the quarterly review of the risk register.

The Governance & Risk Advisor introduced the report to the Board and highlighted the following areas.

·  The quarterly review of the risk register has taken place and a couple of changes have been made to scores for this quarter. Some amendments have also been made to current impacting factors.

·  Risk NR19 - structural reform to LGPS / Pooling has been amended to ‘Move to new asset pool’. The score has been updated to reflect the likelihood increasing from likely to almost certain.

·  Risk NR07 – Employers Data. Following the successful roll out of I-Connect to all employers and more employer training taking place the likelihood has been reduced from likely to possible.

·  Our top 3 risks have been updated to reflect the change of score to the pooling risk:

o  NR06 – the loss of IT including cyber attack and loss of power. The fund is planning to move its admin system to a Heywood hosted solution and appropriate data protection and cyber assessments are being carried out.

o  NR01 – Poor service levels below agreed standards. The current factors impacting this risk are set out in the Pension Fund Administration report. As part of the Business Continuity Plan review a service level plan and crisis communication plan have also been agreed.

o  NR19 – Move to new asset pool. Work and discussions are ongoing with pool and advisors. See full report within June Committee report.

The Board RESOLVED to note the report.

The purpose of this report is to receive regular governance updates as well as Training and Work Plan issues from the Board and request high level training needs from Board Members.

The Governance & Risk Advisor introduced the report to the Board and highlighted the following areas.

Work Plan

·  In developing a work plan the Board should reflect the need to maintain a balance between building the knowledge and understanding of Board Members along with delivery of the statutory obligations of the Board.

Training

·  Board Members should have a breadth of knowledge and understanding that is sufficient to allow them to understand fully any professional advice the Board is given. They should also be able to challenge any information or advice they are given and understand how that information or advice impacts on any decision relating to the Board’s duty to assist the Avon Pension Fund.

·  As agreed at previous Board meetings individual board members should retain their own training log to evidence how they are fulfilling their responsibilities and update these on a quarterly basis to the Governance Team to aid future training needs analysis.

Recruitment

·  This is the last meeting for Steve Harman (Employer Representative)

·  1 Member Representative and 2 Employer Representatives required

·  Interviews planned to take place in August

Councillor Toby Simon asked if the Trade Unions had been directly approached with regard to a Member Representative.

The Governance & Risk Advisor replied that they had not and said that advertisements had been sent to all members and employers and posted on the Fund website and LinkedIn.

The Chair gave thanks to Steve Harman on behalf of the Board for his work and contributions over many years.

The Board RESOLVED to:

i) Note the workplan & training plan for 2025

ii) Note the dates for future meetings.