Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to present the Fund’s administration performance for the period up to and including 31^st July 2025 vs key performance indicators (KPI’s).

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

Pensions Administration Strategy

The primary purpose of the Pensions Administration Strategy (PAS) is to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the Fund and scheme employers.

The PAS sets out the performance standards and best practice that the fund and scheme employers should aim to meet. The document defines clear roles and responsibilities and has been developed with the need to comply with new regulations for Pensions Dashboards.

The fund intends to apply the PAS in a working partnership arrangement with scheme employers and their third-party payroll providers. Once the Strategy has been approved by Committee the fund will go into consultation with scheme employers for a period of 3 months.

Communication Policy

The Communications Policy is required by LGPS Regulations 2013, Section 61 and forms part of the PAS. It outlines our guidelines and principles on how the fund will communicate with members, employers and other stakeholders. It has been designed to provide an effective and transparent framework for communications.

Our communication aims are to:

•  Provide relevant, accurate, accessible information for all stakeholders.

•  Use plain language and avoid unnecessary jargon.

• Use communication channels which best fit individual needs while encouraging digital use to improve service experience.

• Support members to make informed decisions about their pension.

The Pension Board have responsibility for monitoring the application of the PAS, including performance standards and will report to the Pensions Committee. The Board met in an informal meeting on 2nd September 2025 and approved the PAS and Communication Policy.

Performance

Appendix 3 to the report includes performance of service vs SLAs up to 31^st July 2025. Following a dip in performance in early 2025, the fund is now seeing continued improvement in performance.

McCloud

On 12th August as part of the PAS workshop the Pension Board were briefed on the funds plan to exercise its discretion to make a determination in respect of McCloud. This will extend the deadline to complete the remedy exercise until 31 August 2026. All board members agreed with the fund’s decision.

Pauline Gordon referred to training that had been undertaken relating to ESOG (Effective System of Governance) and ORA (Own Risk Assessment) and asked how these policies fit within the work of the Fund.

The Pensions Operations Manager replied under the TPR General Code of Practice this will become a compulsory item, but said that it was not yet and the officers were seeking to be ahead of the curve.

The Governance and Risk Advisor added that they were expecting to be able to provide enhanced governance requirements and to add these elements in where necessary.

Charles Gerrish asked if an explanation could be given regarding the term ‘club transfer’.

The Technical and Compliance Manager replied that clubs are a network of public sector pension schemes.

Councillor Joanna Wright asked if further comment could be given on the Access and Fairness Consultation.

The Pensions Operations Manager replied that the Government’s response to the consultation has not been received yet. She added that while the changes proposed are welcome, it will require a substantial amount of work for officers, as with McCloud, and it would be better if the work could be staggered.

Councillor Wright asked if the concerns have been shared with the Government.

The Technical and Compliance Manager replied that there is a national officer group that have taken this matter under consideration. She explained that most funds were in favour of the proposals, but recognise the work involved as some cases will go back to 2005.

She added that the LGA has also issued a response and that the deadline has passed to respond further at this stage.

The Chair asked if these points of concern were given in the initial response.

The Technical and Compliance Manager replied that they were.

The Chair suggested that the Pensions Administration Strategy might be renamed to include the word ‘policy’.

The Head of Pensions said that he would discuss the proposal offline with the Chair and supporting officers.

The Committee RESOLVED to:

i)  Approve the new Pensions Administration Strategy

ii)  Approve the Communications Policy

iii)  Note the service performance for the period ending 31st July 2025.