Report to:

Pension Committee

 

 

Date:

26 February 2026

 

 

By:

Chief Finance Officer

 

 

Title:

Communications Report

 

 

Purpose:

 

This report provides an update on Fund Communications activities.

 

RECOMMENDATION:

 

The Pension Committee is recommended to note the communications updates detailed in this report.

 

1.           Background

 

1.1             This report is presented to the Pension Committee to provide an update on Communications activity that directly affect the East Sussex Pension Fund (the Fund).

 

1.2             The Fund has a Communications Strategy (updated in June 2025) which defines the main methods of communication provided for key stakeholders. This includes making the best use of technology where appropriate, to provide quicker and more efficient communications for the Fund's stakeholders. The Fund will ensure that communication methods are accessible to all.

 

2.         Communications Update

 

Scheme Member training

 

2.1       The communications team continue to work closely with the Employer Engagement team to develop a booking process for training sessions, promotion via Scheme employers, scripts, YouTube videos and sending out and collating feedback. Six training sessions were run in January 2026. The communications team will be looking at methods of promotion for the sessions in May and October this year.

 

East Sussex Pension Assistant (ESPA)

 

2.2        The Communications team have been heavily involved in pulling together a knowledge base of over 200 questions and answers to test as part of the new digital assistant (which will sit on designated pages of the website as an automated tool to support members in obtaining LGPS information). Three stages of user acceptance testing are now complete. The project team are currently analysing results and making minor tweaks with launch currently planned around March 2026.

 

East Sussex Pension Fund main website

 

2.3       The website continues to be updated with relevant and engaging information for members and employers.

 

2.4       The website (including all PDF documents) is checked to ensure accessibility guidelines are adhered to. The primary tool used to manage accessibility is ‘Silktide’ which is a web governance platform that helps improve website quality and user experience by finding and fixing issues related to accessibility, content, and marketing. A snapshot of the Silktide results (as of 22 January 2026) is shown at the top of the next page.

 

This is a screenshot of Silktide, the programme we use to test accessibility of the ESPF website. It shows the following scores: 1. Content = 90 ... Great 2. Accessibility = 88 ... Great 3. Marketing = 83 ... Good 4. User experience = 97 ... Excellent

2.5        Website analytics data are detailed in Appendix 1.

 

 

‘My Pension’ - member self-service website

 

2.6       An updated version of the member self-service website, ‘My Pension’ went live in July 2024. The launch of this updated functionality is helping transform the way members access and engage with vital pension information online. The Fund will continue to promote ‘My Pension’ through newsletters, the website and through employers.

 

2.7           Several of the annual benefit statement communications issued in late August asked members to register for ‘My Pension’. The figures below include over 3,500 new registrations since that date.

 

2.8          Shown below (as of 6 February 2026) are current registration levels (excluding electronic opt outs).

 

Type of member

On Engage (number)

% registered for ‘My Pensions’

Old MSS % registered

Contributing

11,293

52.6

51

No longer contributing

8,757

39.9

46

Pensioners

8,836

64.7

50

Widow/dependant

609

36.0

19

2.9          The chart below shows the progress in member registration from October 2024 to the end of 2025.

 

This is a chart which shows registration levels on 'My Pension' - our member self-service website. It compares two things over the period Oct 24 to Dec 25. 1. Members who were unregistered. 2. Members who are registered for 'My Pension'. In Oct 2024 approx 25% of members were registered. By December 2025, this increased to 50%.

 

3             Other Communications activity

 

3.1       An Active member newsletter has been issued, interim contribution reports issued, Funding Strategy Statement and Pension Admin Strategy consultations opened and administered, links to generic LGPS information added to some ‘My Pension’ pages, McCloud letters updated, Annual Reports and Accounts finalised and letters amended to take account of increased minimum threshold for issuing payslips.

 

4           Conclusion and reasons for recommendation

4.1       The Pension Committee is recommended to note the updates provided in the report.

 

 

IAN GUTSELL

Chief Finance Officer

 

Contact Officer:          Susan Greenwood, Head of Pensions

Email:                          Susan.Greenwood@eastsussex.gov.uk