Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present the Fund’s administration performance for the three months to 30 June 2023 vs key performance indicators (KPI’s).

Nick Weaver, Chair of the Pension Board addressed the Committee. He informed them that at their meeting in September the Board had expressed its concern over the performance levels of the service. He said that he was also aware that many other Funds were facing the same backlog issues.

He acknowledged that a huge effort has been made by the team to put in place steps for improvements to be made and that officers are showing the drive and determination required to make it happen.

The Head of Pensions thanked him for his support and said that the service level was not where the team want it to be and that they are working towards achieving the SLA targets.

He gave the following reasons for the current performance levels.

·  Staff vacancies

·  Payroll – Transfer of staff from Member Servicing to assist with this process.

·  Demand for the service – This has risen substantially.

·  Management Information (MI) – This needs to improve.

·  Process weakness – Manual data entry

He stated that they are actively recruiting to the service and that a market supplement has been put in place for these salaries. He added that a more dynamic solution for MI was being developed.

He said that they were also working on forming an organisational structure that has more capacity and resources built into it.

The Member Services Manager added that four Pensions Officers had been recently appointed, as well as a Senior Pensions Officer within the Employer Services Team. She added that meetings take place on a weekly basis to analyse the work within the services and that deaths and retirements are always considered to be a priority.

She added that a task force has been established to support the Member Contact Team with the increase in enquiries and that this helped in some degree for some pressure to be alleviated.

She stated that the forthcoming regulatory changes, such as McCloud, would also affect the service with likely complications leading to delays.

Wendy Weston asked if following the resignation of a Team Leader and subsequent structure review, has the post now been readvertised.

The Member Services Manager replied that recruitment to this position has been postponed at the present time to make sure that we have the right people in the right positions.

William Liew commented that he could imagine that recruitment into this work area could be difficult. He asked whether Chatbox or another form of AI could be used for answering regular questions.

The Head of Pensions said that in terms of addressing customer queries, this was part of a longer-term process to enable self-service and improve the technology behind it, but it could not be implemented to make a difference in the near term.

Councillor Chris Dando said that he would like to have some assurance that service levels will begin to improve and put in place a deadline for this to happen. He added that the Fund needs to retain as much credibility as possible for the services that it provides.

The Head of Pensions replied that expectations need to be managed carefully as performance will likely get worse before they start to get better. He added that he did not expect there to be much change in the reports the Committee receives in December 2023 and March 2024, but expected improvements to show from June 2024 onwards.

Councillor Dando asked if there would be any merit in amending the SLAs at this current time.

The Head of Pensions replied that, rather than amending them in response to currently poor performance, a strategic review of SLAs be carried out so that they can be refined in line with current member expectation.

The Chair, on behalf of the Committee, wished to record their thanks to officers across the service for all their work.

The Board RESOLVED to:

i)  Note the service performance for the three months to 30 June 2023.

ii)  Request a strategic review of the SLAs be carried out and that progress on this be reported to the March 2024 Committee meeting.