Agenda item

Report by Director of Finance and Support Services.

The Board is asked to note the report and confirm any further information that they require.

9.1     The Board received a report by the Director of Finance, Performance and Procurement (copy appended to the signed minutes).

9.2     The Board welcomed Lois Downer, Deputy Head of Pensions at Hampshire County Council (HCC).  Lois introduced herself to the Board and explained that HCC provided pension administration service for Hampshire Police and Hampshire Fire Services.  West Sussex County Council was the only external local government client.

9.3     Tara Atkins introduced the report and reported that officers were liaising with HCC over benefit arrangements for members who had been affected by the amendment to the regulations.

9.4     The Board made comments including those that follow.

•      Asked if an exit credit had ever been paid.  – Rachel Wood reported that there was currently one pending which concerned an employer who was in surplus.

•      Queried officer progress with the MHCLG Valuation Cycle consultation.  – Rachel Wood confirmed that officers were drafting a response.  Officers could send Board members a draft of the response and the submitted version could be brought to the next Board meeting for noting.  Officers were working on an approach to inform employers of the consultation.

•      Asked why there were so few West Sussex County Council pensioners, (14,599) out of 27,253.  – Tara Atkins commented that this may be linked to who the final employer was for the member.  Rachel Wood resolved to look into this and check the figures.

•      Sought clarity on the figure for the number of employers that was missing from Appendix D.  – Rachel Wood confirmed it should be 201.

•      Commented that it would be interesting to look at the number of people who have signed up to the portal compared to the previous system.  – Rachel Wood resolved to look into this.  Tara Atkins commented that the Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) notifications would be expected to increase portal sign up.

•      Sought clarity on the number of open cases from Capita that HCC were working through.  – Rachel Wood explained that HCC were working to understand the open cases and any disparity with members with open/closed cases.

9.5     The Board commented that guidance should be statutory.

9.6     Lois Downer gave a presentation to the Board which gave an overview of Hampshire Pension Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

9.7     Lois Downer explained that HCC used the Civica system to handle pension workflow.  The system allowed urgent cases to be identified and prioritised.  The system also highlighted cases nearing Service Level Agreements (SLA), which allowed them to be picked out and resolved to ensure compliance.  Temporary staff had been hired to assist with the workload following the transfer.  It was acknowledged that the initial month would miss the 100% SLA due to the transfer work.  Steps had been put in place to make improvements going forwards.  Call volumes had been five to six times higher than expected.  Members seemed reassured with how their cases were being handled.  Differences had been noted with employer annual returns, and so HCC were working with West Sussex County Council on data cleansing work.

9.8     Rachel Wood confirmed that officers would be working with HCC and the actuary, Hymans Robertson, towards the valuation work.  A data improvement plan was being drafted.

9.9     The Board made comments including those that follow.

•      Commented that systems were only as good as the users.  – Lois Downer reported that it was a central team that inputted data, so cases were not waiting on individuals.

•      Sought clarity on the process for queries.  – Lois Downer explained that HCC had moved away from queries having an individual case officer.  The central team could look into queries and also see who was the last officer to look at a case.  Most queries related to estimates.  The system resulted in better resilience as all officers were able to see all information.  Members would still be able to speak to senior officers for complex cases.

•      Sought clarity on the process for complaints.  – Lois Downer explained that informal complaints were handled straight away, ensuring that members were not given unrealistic expectations.  Formal complaints went to a specific team, which would enable lessons to be learnt as an investigation would follow.

•      Queried the sort of issues that had been discovered with the data.  – Tara Atkins reported that there were issues with historic data. Rachel Wood reported that HCC were already working on data improvements outside of the formal plan.  Lois Downer confirmed that HCC were prioritising the issue as it would impact the valuation and it was important that members were able to see their ABSs.

•      Commented on the data that the Board would like to see in standard reports going forwards.  – Tara Atkins reported that officers had not had membership data discussions with HCC yet.  The intention would be to match previous report information following a discussion with HCC.

•      The Board highlighted that they would want to communicate with HCC on communication newsletters.

9.10   Lois Downer expressed her wish to work openly with the County Council and resolve any transparency issues.  HCC had a customer service excellence accreditation which they were keen to retain.

9.11   Resolved – That the Board notes the report and requests that reports include more data following officer discussions with Hampshire County Council.