Agenda item

1.1.        The Board considered the minutes of its 17 June meeting and the summary of discussion between Board members and officers on 9 September. An update on the status of previous pension board actions was also considered.

1.2.        In relation to the note of thanks extended to the previous Head of Pensions (under 1.4 of the summary of discussion of 9 September meeting), the Chair asked for an update on the progress with recruiting for a new permanent Head of Pensions.

1.3.        Ian Gutsell (IG) explained that the Interim Head of Pensions was undertaking a review of the current team structure, taking into consideration the fact that the considerable work into setting up ACCESS was now receding but there was a clear need to focus more on employer engagement in the future. The new role of Head of Pensions and the team structure would need to reflect these changes and could include the requirement for additional resources. Kevin Foster (KF) added that the purpose of this review was to create an accurate job specification that could be correctly graded in order to attract the most suitable candidate, which would be a difficult task given the competitive job market. He added that it was standard practice to include a description of the team structure in the job role for the head of service who would be managing the team, which was why the team’s roles were also being reviewed.

1.4.        The Chair of the Pension Committee, Cllr Gerard Fox, said that officers should take on board the view that the pensions team must have a designated Head of Pensions embedded in East Sussex County Council  and with clear sight of accountability to the Pension Committee, managing a possibly expanded team, and with a greater focus on employer engagement.

1.5.        Lynda Walker (LW), added that if the review concluded that more staff were needed, she believed the East Sussex Pension Fund (ESPF) was healthy enough to be able to recruit them. LW added that it was important that the review was completed in a timely manner and that existing staff were supported throughout the process.

1.6.        The Board RESOLVED to:

1) agree the minutes of the 17 June meeting;

2) note the summary of discussion between members of the Pension Board and officers on 9 September; and

3) request that an update on the status of outstanding requests made by the Board since 2017 is circulated to the Board by email. The outstanding requests included

            i)          a request for the Breaches Log to be available at each Board meeting

ii)         a schedule of late payments by employers of contributions is provided for each Board meeting

iii)         a copy of all Internal Audit reports and any changes to the Audit strategy are presented to the following Board Meeting

4) request that in future the Breaches Log is presented to the Board at each future meeting

5) request that a schedule of late payments of contributions by employers is presented to the Board with the administration report

6)  note that all Internal Audit reports have been presented to the Board since the request was made in February 2018