Members were provided with a plan of Civica’s key deliverables to the Authority, by T Fletcher, I Taylor and A Smith; the plan had been agreed and implemented in November 2015.  It was noted that deliveries to address each of the requirements had been made, and a number of the pieces of functionality had been signed off and were in use.  Valuations and Annual returns were in the final testing phase; Civica was committed to meeting the customer deadlines.  Members were informed that significant performance improvements had been made, and that Civica was continuing to work with South Yorkshire to find further performance gains.

T Fletcher referred to the challenging time that had been encountered by the Authority and Civica during the implementation phase of the system.  Civica had shown a level of naivety in taking on a number of implementations with contractual constraints from the Authority’s existing system supplier which had resulted in the requirement for 8 sites to ‘go live’ at the same time.  She added that Civica had continued to grow and a structure was now in place; Civica had employed an additional 25 members of staff.  Civica had engaged with the Local Government community and objectives had been set for the legislative changes; key objectives had been agreed with the User Group, and investment would continue into the product.

Members noted Civica’s key deliverables:-

•       The annual allowance development had been delivered on time and was currently being tested by all customers.

•       There had been a number of changes to the pension increases to accommodate the negative CARE increases for the year.  These had now been completed and delivered, and were being implemented and run by a number of sites.

•       The annual returns development had been delivered to a number of test sites, to be delivered to the Authority by the end of March.

•       The valuation extract had been completed in a number of phases, to which the Authority had been one of the test sites.  This was now in the final test phase before being released.

•       The first version of the performance fixes had previously been released and the second version would be released today.  Problems had been encountered by the QA Team, which had resulted in the second version being released 3 days later than previously stated.

The Authority noted that work was on track for the transfer of data from the Nottinghamshire Fund, although minor resource problems would be encountered in relation to the Easter holiday period.

Councillor Ellis sought clarification as to whether the annual returns were due for completion for tomorrow.

A Smith commented that the annual returns had been delivered on 9 March, and customer feedback was awaited by 18 March; any arising issues would be resolved in-house, and all sites would ‘go live’ on 18 March.

Councillor Ellis expressed concern that the Authority had been used as a test site on numerous occasions, that acknowledgement should be made to the Authority’s staff for the additional work undertaken, and the learning gained by Civica from the Authority.  The Authority wished to continue working with Civica, to limit the damage suffered to date, but Councillor Ellis considered Civca’s past learning to have been at the Authority’s expense.  At the last Authority meeting Civica had been informed on how much the Authority’s performance had been affected, together with the reputational damage suffered and the overtime costs incurred in the excess of £50,000, which had not yet concluded.

T Fletcher commented that Civica had supplied pension solutions for 18 years, and that there had been a great deal of growth in the business over the last 2 to 3 years.  Civica had become a competitor in the Local Government Pension Scheme market; Civica should have revisited some of the risks and issues for all sites.  T Fletcher added that the Authority would to continue to see improvements to the system, and that G Chapman and herself would work on efficiencies rather than going down a formal route of compensation costs, to be discussed in further detail.

Councillor Lodge expressed disappointment that the Authority’s reputation had been damaged, which would take time to recover, and that staff sickness levels had risen.  He added that it was frustrating that one of the release dates within the report had slipped by 3 days.

Councillor Mirfin-Boukouris commented that Civica had not addressed previous concerns.  She suggested that Civica provide the Authority with compensation cost proposals to enable a good working relationship moving forwards.

Councillor Sangar commented that the Authority’s staff had taken a hit in the level of performance delivered, and that Civica had not provided milestones in terms of performance moving forwards.

T Fletcher referred to Civica’s internal team which undertook fortnightly meetings with the 12 Local Government customers, and that weekly updates were despatched on key deliverables; processes were in place to measure Civica’s performance; she would ensure that the Authority was included onto the weekly distribution list.

G Chapman commented that the Authority would meet deadlines by the end of the month; the system was now reaching the point where it became under the control of the Authority, and the interaction required with Civica would lessen.  The Authority was already in a position to resolve some problems in-house.  Once the system was running in the background, the Authority would in a position to develop the system further to meet efficiency requirements.  It was vital for the Authority to be able to send out the valuation data in a format that the Actuary could use. It was envisaged that within the next few months, that only work and project issues would be raised at these meetings instead of Civica and UPM issues.

Councillor Rodgers commented that Members, as the board of trustees, had many demands, and that the Local Pension Board would look at this area of performance.  Members of the Pension Scheme were interested to know that the scheme was running effectively, and that money was not being spent on staff overtime.  There were a total of four main local authorities with over 400 employers including parish councils and schools who expected the Authority to perform well in order to provide the service that they required.  Councillor Rodgers expressed concern that issues were still slipping and he considered that Civica should propose a compensation of value, to indicate its commitment to the Authority moving forwards.

T Fletcher commented that discussions would be held in relation to the compensation request, to ensure that the Authority would receive efficiencies; she was confident that an agreement could be reached.

Councillor Ellis commented that the Authority’s performance levels were beginning to rise; the Authority had always been a high performing Authority with dedicated staff, and that it was imperative to return to this high level.  She added that it was necessary for Civica to provide a good quality product that was delivered on time, with milestones that were delivered on time, and that it was hoped that the improvements made would be built upon.  The Authority looked forward to the gesture of goodwill/compensation for Members discussion.

G Chapman commented that he would ensure that Civica came back with a serious compensation proposal to the Authority, to which he would circulate to Members via email for discussion; he would provide Members with an explanation of any technical offering to enable full consideration as to whether the offer was deemed sufficient compensation.  He suggested that the Administration Report presented to the Corporate Planning and Governance Board include an explanation on the last quarter in relation to the UPM and Civica relations.  It was noted that a member of staff had further developed the system in-house, which had resulted in a cost saving to the Authority; the system was now enabling issues to be completed in time and confidence was starting to grow.

RESOLVED – That the Authority:-

i)      Noted the update.

ii)     Agreed that Civica would provide the Authority with a serious compensation proposal.

iii)     Noted that an explanation on the last quarter, in relation to the UPM and Civica relations, be included within the Administration Report to be presented to the Corporate Planning and Governance Board.

iv)    Would be included onto Civica’s distribution list for the weekly updates on key deliverables.