Agenda item

The Group Manager, Funding, Investment & Risk introduced the report to the Committee.

Modern Gov Library

She explained officers were seeking to create capacity & improve efficiency by moving some regular monitoring reports out of the meeting pack to an alternative accessible format.

She said that the change to the format of the Committee reports was to reduce the size of the meeting reports pack so that there is more focus on papers where the Committee are required to make decisions.

She stated that to facilitate this change the plan is to use the ‘Library’ within Modern Gov to store some of the monitoring reports. This means that the reports/appendices are still available for Committee members to read but would not be part of the reports pack for the actual meeting.

She added that in order to ensure all members have the correct access to Modern Gov and the library, The APF Communications Team, led by Jason Morel, will contact all members in January 2022 to provide the relevant support & training required.

Hyman’s LGPS online Learning Academy

She informed the Committee that the SAB’s Good Governance Review is expected to include additional knowledge and skills requirements for Committee, Pension Board and Officers. She said that Hymans Robertson have been working with the SAB to develop these requirements and have produced an LGPS Online Learning Academy (LOLA).

She stated that the training is split into a number of modules covering the revamped CIPFA Knowledge & Skills Framework and TPR’s Code of Practice 14. (The training will be updated to reflect the Single Code of Practice once published). Each module contains up to 6 short presentations of 20 minutes or less.

She said that the training has been designed so that it can be done in bite sized chunks, including supplementary information, such as definitions of common jargon, links to additional learning material and a short quiz at the end of each

module.

She added that the Fund has arranged for Hymans to do a short demonstration of LOLA to committee members and officers on 17th December 2021 at 2pm.

Nick Weaver, Pension Board Chair commented that he was encouraged by the material that he had seen from Hymans.

Richard Orton asked if members would be expected to read all the background papers that are saved into the library.

The Group Manager, Funding, Investment & Risk replied that they should if possible.

Charles Gerrish commented that he had concerns over access to the library and asked if the Council’s IT would be adequately enabled.

The Group Manager, Funding, Investment & Risk replied that officers will contact members individually to assess their needs.

The members of the Committee were minded to advise that the following resolutions should be made on Friday 17th December.

That the Committee:

i)  Notes the changes to the format of future committee reports & introduction of the Modern Gov library from March 2022

ii)  Notes the introduction of the Hymans Robertson’s LGPS Online Learning Academy from January 2022.

iii)  Notes the Committee & Investment Panel workplans and training programme for the relevant period.