Agenda item

63.1     The Board considered a report providing an update on matters relating to Pensions Administration activities and Paul Punter (PP) drew the Board’s attention to the following points:

KPIs

1)    The volume numbers of tasks received are extraordinarily high compared to the historical position and are unsustainable. 82% for Q4 so below what officers are aiming for however the table in Appendix 1 of the report demonstrates that performance has improved over the quarter as the workload has decreased through clearing the backlog which is encouraging. Further, death and retirement requests were processed on time which is key.

2)    The Admin Working Group met on 02/12/24 and went through the October 24 Admin Performance in detail. Full explanations were provided about the cases with the longest number of days taken  and where the average number of days were high. The attendees were appropriately reassured the data was accurate and being reported correctly and most importantly that the PAT were working tirelessly and effectively to clear the backlog and improve the reported team performance. The impact of uneven spikes in post received (like following the issue of ABS) were much better understood.  November and December KPIs demonstrated a significant improvement and the Admin Working Group will look at the detail of this at their next meeting.

3)    January saw further improvement however poorer numbers are anticipated in February and March due to the pressures on resources at BHCC and the mid-year bulk file from BHCC in addition to their officers catching up on their backlog of work which has generated new queries. The January file was run in February and overall went well which is very positive and indicates that the BHCC files can run in same way that other employers do.

4)    The Chair congratulated the PAT on improving performance and, whilst not yet fully in line with targets indicated the Board’s support and acknowledged the improved reporting.

Helpdesk

5)    The Fund aims to achieve a gold standard service provision for the Pensions Helpdesk. The team is working effectively, and members of the Helpdesk are taking on more work from the administration team.  The Chair appreciated that the work desk report was now down to one page and was pleased that the team had remained stable and was now able to take on more tasks.

6)    Deferred benefits queries are often the tasks which take the longest to complete as tasks relating to death and retirement are prioritised and the numbers of tasks can change once the work has been analysed depending on the complexity of the work. A robot is in place now to do much of the work once the analysis is done which should accelerate the process.

Staff

7)    Since the last meeting there has been one resignation and a staff member will be beginning maternity leave so some redeployment of staff required.

Projects

8)    Pensions Dashboard: Officers continue to focus on getting the data ready using a Heywood Altair Insights dashboard report to identify gaps. Heywood are our Integrated Service Provider, and a project plan has been created, with a two-phase approach pencilled in. Phase one was completed in January.  Reconciliation of data from the Fund and Prudential is ongoing to ensure it is consistent. All schemes must onboard by 31 October 2026, but the LGPS formal staging date is 31 October 2025. It is not yet known when the pension dashboards will go live to the public. 

9)    iConnect: Officers had targeted the last 10 employers (who had historically had data issues or been less engaging) to be onboarded by 31 March 2025. All have had their initial meetings and discussions about our specifications and requirements. University of Brighton is almost ready to be onboarded which represents good progress.

Pension software

10) A paper on the PAS tender was presented to the Pensions Committee on 21 November 2024 advising Officers had evaluated the LGPS Framework bid and were happy with the quality of the submission. Officers recommended that Heywood Limited would continue to provide a robust and comprehensive service to the Fund and further system enhancements should be taken on as part of a new contract. The Pensions Committee authorized the Chief Finance Officer to complete the appropriate due diligence to award the contract. The award was made on 23 January 2025. The contract will commence on 28 April 2026 for a five-year term, with an option to extend up to 26 April 2034.

11) There is no impact on the service from the delayed start of the contract as the agreement is with the existing provider.

12) Officers will provide an update on the progress of the overseas mortality checks at the next meeting.

63.2     The Board welcomed the detailed information and officers’ commitment to remaining transparent and noted that the increases in work will result in a drop in the KPIs but this does not reflect a drop in performance as the hard work of PAT officers is recognised.

63.3     The Board RESOLVED to note the report.