J Bailey presented the Quarterly Administration update for the period 1^st January 2022 to 31^st March 2022.

Staffing

The report contained a summary of joiners and leavers for the administration service during the period.  It was noted that the Benefits Team (the largest administration team) now had a full complement of Pensions Officers, but in Quarter four two long standing and experienced officers had left for better paid and more senior positions externally.  The role profiles for these vacancies had been refreshed after consultation and were being advertised in April 2022.

It was noted that overall sickness absence had increased during the quarter, though the incidence of short-term absence had decreased slightly as had the number of staff contracting Covid.

Case Work Performance

It was noted that overall case volumes completed during the Quarter had dropped slightly compared with the previous quarter, this was likely due to a loss of processing time in March whilst the running of the 2022 pensions increase was undertaken.

Staff had returned to the office for part of the working week during Quarter 4, but it was too early to see whether this would have a positive impact on case processing productivity.

Statutory Disclosure Reporting

Appendix A showed the Quarter 4 report for the areas covered under the various disclosure regulations and provided some assurance that statutory targets where generally being met in the main areas.

Employer Performance

A table within the report showed the current position of employer monthly data returns and indicated that the vast majority of employers were continuing to provide the monthly returns, with no reported concerns.

Following a question from the Board, J Bailey confirmed that future reporting on performance of payroll providers would also be provided to the employers which was important for employers who had outsourced payroll services.

Individual Query Employer Reporting

The Board was reminded that the performance of employers in respect of responding to individual queries raised by SYPA had been monitored since last year.

Appendix B showed the performance in recent quarters for the employers with the highest volume of queries.  This now also included two payroll providers (Capita and EPM) who had both recently undergone a number of personnel changes which had caused operational difficulties.  The Head of Pensions Administration and members of the Engagement team were liaising with the new contacts to ensure they understood their statutory responsibilities and to provide any support/training required.

The Board noted that the trend analysis clearly indicated some good progress had been made with the volumes of outstanding queries for Doncaster MBC (administered by Rotherham payroll service) although outstanding numbers remained high for Rotherham MBC.  Monitoring meetings had been held regularly with Rotherham payroll and additional resources had been allocated top reduce the outstanding volumes.  Sheffield CC had also devoted significant resources to resolve the volumes of outstanding queries and the Board noted their continued positive progress in this area.

The Board felt that although RMBC had made some progress, the outstanding figures were still high and not reducing sufficiently quickly.  The Board requested that RMBC be asked to prepare (and potentially deliver) a report outlining the steps they were taking to improve performance and the intended timescales to resolve the issues.

N Doolan-Hamer queried the figures for Sheffield College which had gone from zero in the first two quarters followed by a sudden jump.  J Bailey would look into this and report back.

The report contained details of scheme member engagement in the areas of customer satisfaction, the Customer Centre and email responses all which remained positive.

The Board was reminded that a satisfaction survey had been issued to employers before Christmas.  A total of 42 responses were received with an overall satisfaction level of 94%.  The feedback from the survey was presented at the virtual Employers Forum in March, a copy of which was at Appendix D.

The Board noted that preparations continued to ensure all scheme members received their Annual Benefit Statement (ABS) ahead of the statutory deadline of 31^st August 2022.  The ABS project team remained on target with the current plan to produce the ABS’s over a two-month period between 1^st May 2022 and 20^th June 2022.

With regard to the Pensions Administration system, it was confirmed that the new software contract with Civica had been completed.  Civica had committed to resolving all significant outstanding issues by September 2022 as per the Improvement Plan which was summarised at Appendix E.

In answer to a question from D Webster, J Bailey commented that there were no financial sanctions if Civica did not resolve the issues within the stated time as the contract was signed under a national framework.  There were other options including the option to terminate the contract early.

The report also gave details of the Life Certificate Exercise, Appendix F summarised the outcomes of the exercise.

The Chair thanked J Bailey for the report.

RESOLVED – That the Board:

i)       Note the report.

ii)      Request a report from Rotherham Borough Council outlining the steps that they intended to take to improve their performance with regard to individual query employer reporting including the timescale to resolve the issue.