Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present to Committee the 3 Year Service Plan and Budget for the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2024. 

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions introduced this report to the Committee. He explained that the Service Plan sets out the Pension Fund’s objectives for the next three years and that the three-year budget supports the objectives and actions arising from the plan, including work relating to the investment strategy, risk management and compliance and improvements in the administration of the Fund.

He highlighted some of the main focus areas of the Plan.

·  Develop and implement fully digitalised services to members and employers to increase operational efficiency and capacity; this will include gap analysis and specification of digital requirements across all stakeholders

·  Monitor transition of final assets to Brunel and ongoing performance of

portfolios and ensuring Brunel are delivering the Fund’s strategic objectives

·  To meet our climate objectives, review the equity allocation with objective to having all equity assets managed in sustainable or Paris Aligned investment strategies

·  In light of the interim valuation, consider whether the current investment

strategy meets the funding objectives or whether the level of risk embedded in the strategy is too low

·  Plan for the expected burden on Fund administration resulting from the

McCloud remedy (including potential Fire scheme related Immediate Detriment cases) and GMP rectification exercises.

·  Undertake any necessary work to ensure the objectives of the Good

Governance Report are met once scheme regulations and statutory guidance are in place.

The budget approved for Administration in 2020/21 was £3.7m. The proposed

budget for 2021/2022 increases to £4.0m. The increase will include the

appointment of both a Transformation Manager and Project implementation officer and include the strengthening of the existing management team and the temporary additional resource to support administration requirements as a result of the expected McCloud remedy.

He acknowledged that it had been a testing time for all staff and that vacancies within the teams were being addressed and strengthened where possible.

Wendy Weston asked why a number of tasks within the Administration Strategy were on hold.

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions replied that since the first national lockdown was imposed in March 2020 a number of significant changes have been required to our ways of working and technical procedures. He added that a revised Administration Strategy will be brought to Committee for consideration later in the year.

Councillor John Cato referred to Appendix 2a and asked why the task ‘Iconnect reporting - Dashboard in place and development of pre load data

validation in progress’ was not listed as behind schedule as its original target date was December 2020 and its completion date had now been revised to March 2022. He also asked if the information listed in the table could be shown as a Gantt Chart.

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions replied that the table was a summary of a larger project document and that a Gantt Chart could be provided. He added that with regard to Iconnect rollout it had been suspended for a period of time due to Covid-19 and that a number of projects had also been rephased to give more realistic timescales.

Richard Orton commented that he was surprised that there was not a greater reference to staffing within the report.

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions apologised if this was seen as an omission and said that contact with staff has remained on a regular basis, especially in terms of digital / communication issues and any operational problems. He said staff training and development has continued through the past year. He added that staff were and will continue to be at the forefront of our plans.

Shirley Marsh-Hughes asked if the increase in salaries planned for 2022/23 should be maintained in 2023/24 rather than decreased to allow for any potential additional projects and business.

The Pensions Manager replied that the budget figures have been produced with the potential McCloud remedy in mind and the resources that could be required to implement that.

Pauline Gordon asked if the two entries below from the Service Plan were related.

·  Develop online portal for PC & LPB members – public and secure areas

·  Review papers and content that go to committee and set up library on

Modern Gov

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions replied that they were related. He said that the portal would provide members access to agenda papers and act as a repository for where updated information can be shared.

Councillor Shaun Stephenson-McGall asked if there was enough available officer time to develop the stakeholder communications strategy.

The Head of Business, Finance and Pensions replied that they had recently recruited into the communications team and were assessing their options for social media use. He added that one format that was being progressed by the Fund was Linkedin.

The Committee RESOLVED to approve the 3 Year Service Plan and Budget for 2021-24 for the Avon Pension Fund.