The Director presented the updated Corporate Strategy covering the three years 2024-2027 for approval. The Corporate Strategy would usually be fully reviewed during the valuation, which is due this time next year, however the Authority recognised a need to do further work on the strategy following discussions with members at the Members Away day in November.

Work has been done to put more focus on driving improvements in the Pensions Administration service, and a report with further details on this will be brought to the next meeting.

Members praised the Authority for taking onboard the feedback following the Members Away Day in November 2023 and were pleased that work had already taken place to put more focus on this area. Members commented that the Away Day was very positive and highlighted the importance of working collectively.

Members further questioned where the Authority thinks we will be in 4 years’ time in terms of the pensions administration processes and clearing the backlogs.

The Assistant Director – Pensions responded that we hope to see improvements over the next year as capacity is increased in the team and work has already taken place to ensure we are catching up on system updates, one of which will be due to go live next week. The Director further followed up that staff are now fully on board with the agenda for change and this attitude will help to drive addressing the changes in pensions administration.

Members probed the Authority on the Risk Register and whether other Pensions Authority’s would have similar risks and if they would be positioned in a similar way on the matrix.

The Director explained that most of the risks on the Authority’s risk matrix would be on every other fund’s matrix however, we score climate risk higher than others to reflect our net zero target. Additionally, some of the investment risks are lower than other funds due to the nature of the Authority’s Investment Strategy in that it is less volatile than the average. This was reflected in the CEM benchmarking results which for investments indicated that we take much less risk, whilst still achieving added value and at a lower cost. 

Members further probed around how this informs the Corporate Strategy.

The Director followed up that each project on the Corporate Strategy is linked to the risks on the risk register with some being more obvious than others.

Members raised questions about the way in which scheme members and stakeholders might influence further development of the Investment Strategy.

The Director responded that it has not yet been decided how the consultation will be conducted due to the vastly different levels of understanding amongst scheme employers and scheme members, so this will need to be framed in a way in which people will understand. Work will commence on this in the early part of the next calendar year and planning will commence later this year. 

RESOLVED: Members approved the updated Corporate Strategy set out in Appendix A.