The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies noted as above.

The Director introduced two new members of staff to the Board, Nigel Keogh (Interim Assistant Director – Pensions) and Sukdave Ghuman (Service Director – Law & Governance from Barnsley Council) who has taken on the role of Deputy Clerk.

The Service Manager - Customer Services reported the Authority have retained the Customer Service Excellence Award with a Compliance Plus rating. We have held this status since 2004. The full report will be shared with the Board when available.

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Councillor Parekh is incorrectly shown as a Scheme Member Representative.

Agreed Action: This will be amended and minutes republished.

RESOLVED: Excepting the above, the minutes were agreed as a true and accurate record.

The Independent Advisor delivered the Annual Report. It is currently in draft form as some detail still needs revision.

RESOLVED: Members considered and accepted the report.

The Independent Advisor delivered a report on the Effectiveness Review of the Local Pension Board.

Following the review it was proposed that the Board agree the following actions:

· Developing communications between the Board and the Authority.

· Informal actions agreed at Board meetings to be recorded.

· Support the Authority in recording diversity characteristics of the Board and provide feedback on the characteristics which the Board feel are important.

· Support the Authority in amending the Board’s constitution to require rotation of the chair and vice-chair roles.

· Request the Authority attempts to provide a shorter, more succinct report on pensions administration for future meetings.

· Request that the Board’s chair and vice-chair work with the Authority to better

manage the time at meetings to reduce time spent on pensions administration and increase time spent on broader Authority governance matters.

· Request that the Authority reflects on the Board’s feedback on the on-line training and knowledge assessment when planning future activities.

· Board to further reflect on the results of the recent knowledge assessment (when available).

· Develop plan to improve succession planning for Board membership.

RESOLVED: Members agreed and accepted the recommendations.

The Head of Governance delivered a report to provide members with an update on current Governance related activity.

Key points to note:

There have been no Authority decisions taken between meetings.

Implementation of the new Pentana Risk system is continuing. A timeline has been agreed with a proposed “go live” date of 24th August 2023.

The Annual Governance Statement is being prepared and will be presented at the Authority Meeting on the 8thJune 2023.

Work is underway for the Monitoring Officer to undertake coaching and mentoring with the Deputy Clerk to increase knowledge and skills. The Assistant Director – Resources officially assumed the role of Chief Finance Officer (formerly termed Treasurer) with effect from 01 April 2023.

Work on amendments to the Authority’s Constitution continues with an expected completion date of the end of May 2023 and then presented at the Authority meeting on the 8th June 2023.

On 23 March 2023, the Board completed its annual effectiveness review. Members accepted recommendations from Officers to consider a rotational Chair and Vice Chair to strengthen the governance within the Board. Expressions of interest have been received.

N. Gregory asked if a timeframe for Chair and Vice-Chair to serve on rotation had been decided. The Head of Governance advised the recommendation is for a two-year term.

D. Webster asked if during the Authority’s Constitution review any changes would be made to the Board’s Constitution and would it be presented to them for review. The Director clarified that the current review concerned the Authority’s constitution rather than that of the Board. The Board’s constitution would be reviewed prior to the next meeting with any amendments presented for consideration prior to formal approval by the Authority.

M. Parekh asked if consideration had been given to the make-up of the Chair and Vice Chair. If for example the Chair is an Employer Rep will the Vice Chair be a Employee Rep. The Director confirmed the convention is that, this should be the case.

The Head of Governance presented a report to provide members with an update on training and development of members.

The key points to note are:

The report from Hymans Robertson on our results in the 2022 National Knowledge Assessment has been received. An updated version is expected to correct the figure shown on our completion rate. It currently states 94% but we are fully compliant and do have a 100% rate.

An analysis of individual member results will be carried out in due course. This will be used to guide the training events for the next year.

The initial results set out in the report show that the overall average score for the

Authority of all participating Authority and Local Pension Board members was 57.01%, ranking the Authority as 9th across 17 Funds who participated. The highest score nationally was 62.50% and the lowest 45.34%.

Some scores were amended due to error when inputting the original figures. Some fields were marked as 0% when n/a was appropriate. The average score for the Board members was 60%, compared with an average of 55% for Authority members.

N. Doolan-Hamer commented that the wording of the questions caused problems when trying to complete the assessments. Pensions is not something she does full time and some were quite technical.

The Head of Governance agreed with the point and in a feedback session with Hymans, it has been agreed to look at a more scenario/case study type assessment to reflect the role of members more accurately.

R. Nurennabi concurred with the observations on the assessment. The challenge for members is keeping up with legislative changes such as the McCloud judgement and the new Pensions Dashboard. Sessions on those as appropriate would be appreciated.

The Head of Governance advised that planned away day for members will have outside experts on hand to deliver material and speak to members. It will be a joint event with Authority members so it will be a good chance for everyone to interact and increase and share knowledge.

K. Richardson asked about the two day induction course he attend when previously serving on the Authority. Is this still available?

The Director advised, that was the LGA Fundamentals course. It does still take place and any member of the Authority or Board would be supported if they wished to participate. The time commitment is considerable as the course now runs over three full days, hence the reason for developing the on-line training facility which is more flexible.

The Head of Governance added an internal induction course for new members is being developed that will run for 12 months providing support.

D. Webster asked if in addition to the joint training with Authority members, will bespoke training for the Board be made available given the different roles. The Head of Governance confirmed that it would.

The Chair welcomed the joint away day Could basic pensions administration training be provided to go along side the technical aspects of the scheme.

The Director advised reading  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The Director delivered a report to update members on the outcome of the triennial valuation process.

Main points to note:

The Actuary has commented that South Yorkshire was the first of their final reports to be issued which is a credit both to our team and to the efficiency of the actuary’s systems.

The process highlighted some areas of learning for things that did not proceed as well as they could. These will be assessed and applied to the next valuation.

As of the valuation date, the Fund had a funding level of 119%. The improved position has been driven by our investments.

There has been significant improvement in the funding levels of employers since the last valuation.

A report will be delivered to both the next Authority and Board meetings respectively that shows a comparison with other LGPS funds.

The Independent Advisor sought clarification of recommendation b in section 2. Director confirmed this has been included in error and only recommendation a is appropriate for the Board.

The Chair asked what the difference was between the Primary and Secondary employer contribution rates mentioned in the report. The Director replied the Primary rate is the Future Service Rate and the Secondary is what used to be called the Deficit Reduction rate. As we do not have a deficit, the terminology could lead to confusion.

RESOLVED: Members noted the outcome of the 2022 Triennial Valuation of the Fund.

The Service Manager - Customer Services presented a report on the updated Consultation, Communications and Engagement Strategy.

Clarification was sought from the Board around the frequency of the document as it is referred to as annual. The Communications Officer replied the reference is in respect to an annual service review and not the strategy itself. This will be looked at to avoid confusion.

In future the review will take place every two years as opposed to annually. Any large changes in the interim period would be brought to the Authority and Board as appropriate.

The Board asked if the following information could be captured within future reporting:

1) Information on the number of members accessing their Annual Statement online or using the Retirement Quote Calculator.

2) How many members still receive paper copies of Newsletters.

The Service Manager - Customer Services replied no Google analytic information is available on how many users access the Annual Statements or Retirement Quote Calculator. This is something that may be possible in the future and will be looked at. The number of total users who access their MyPension account can be provided. Regarding newsletters, 2,435 members receive a paper copy.

It was noted the communications sent to employers seem to be focused on administrative issues of the scheme. Are more senior staff at the employers being missed? The Service Manager - Customer Services advised this would be reviewed.

R. Nurennabi asked if other LGPS funds produced similar documents and whether they are as comprehensive. The Service Manager - Customer Services replied, yes, when comparisons have been done with other LGPS funds, the documents do contain much of the same information. The Director added, this is a statutory document we are required to produce by the LGPS Regulations.

R. Nurennabi then asked if there were any insights that could be shared with employers, regarding communications with scheme members. The Communications Officer has already started work on engaging with employers on this and providing resources to employers.

RESOLVED: Members noted the report.

The Director delivered a report to update Members on administration performance and issues for the period from 1st January 2023 to 31st March 2023.

It was clarified the figures in the table at the top of page 144, do not tie up with the figures shown in the table at the bottom of the page. This is due to some individual case types not being included in the larger table due to the sheer number of processes involved.

There has been fall in the performance of case work processing. There has not yet been a corresponding increase in customer dissatisfaction, although some trend is present. There has also not been a marked increase in customer complaints.

The Interim Assistant Director – Pensions advised he has held talks with managers within the service on how the backlog situation occurred and the impact on processing other case work. A recovery plan is being produced which will include plan to ensure the situation does not happen again.

Much of this will be dependant on the pensions administration software being made fit for purpose and then utilising it in a more effective way. A more strategic approach about the quality of information we hold in the system will also be required.

A capacity planning review is being undertaken by the Service Manager – Benefits to ensure our resources are being utilised effectively. This will conclude by the end of May.

How the Authority reports on performance also requires review to make it more succinct and focussed. This will form part of the Administration Action Plan which will include:

· Better use of IT.

· Better allocation of work.

· Increasing staff training and understanding skills gaps.

· Prevention measures to avoid a repeat situation.

· Ensuring adequate staffing levels.

An action plan is expected to be reported to the Authority in June.

N Doolan-Hamer questioned the plans to clear the Aggregation case backlog. It was previously reported a team had been set up to deal with these, but it now appears it will fall into this review. The Interim Assistant Director – Pensions advised the pensions admin system contains a function for bulk processes to be run and work is being undertaken by our Systems Team to get that working. Currently Aggregations are being dealt with via overtime for staff. N Doolan-Hamer questioned why this course of action was only just being considered now, when the problem has been known about for a while. The Interim Assistant Director – Pensions replied we have allowed a situation to develop where the short comings of the pensions admin system have been tolerated and internal workarounds have been used. A change of focus is needed to ensure the system is working as intended.

N Doolan-Hamer asked if staff who do the casework have been consulted about improvement initiatives. The Director replied that as the plan moves forward and becomes more detailed, more staff will become more involved.

D. Webster asked if there are still unfulfilled tasks Civica have not delivered on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

The Interim Assistant Director – Pensions delivered a report to update members on the latest iteration of the Data Quality Improvement Plan and the latest data scoring provided to the Pensions Regulator.

K. Richardson asked if the Authority is part of the Tell Us Once (TUO) Scheme.

The Director confirmed we are a part of TUO and life existence checks are carried out annually for pensioners who live abroad.

The Service Manager - Customer Services added we also use address tracing and mortality screening services from the General Registry Office and that data is received every week. This is in addition to the National Fraud Initiative undertaken every two years.

D. Webster asked about the error of Scheme Retirement Data and why it appeared not be dealt with until a bulk correction in November. The Interim Assistant Director – Pensions replied the way this data is presented is not helpful, it is a system generated data field. The numbers increase throughout the year and are then cleared by a bulk run. Consideration should be given to whether the system generated reports are focussing on the key date sets needed.

The Director delivered the report.

RESOLVED: Members noted and accepted the report.

The Team Leader – Governance delivered the report.

RESOLVED: Members noted and accepted the report.

a) The Director sought the views of the Board on the principle of a proposal raised by the Chair and Vice Chair of the Authority at their last meeting; on whether a remuneration package should be put in place for members of the Board.

A discussion was held and Members views will be fed back to the Authority.

Agreed Action: Expenses claim procedure currently in place to be circulated to Board members.

b) The Chair advised this was the last meeting for R. Fennessey as Vice-Chair. The Chair, Members and Officers thanked him for his contributions during his tenure.