J Bailey introduced Lee Mann and Alan Rogers from Rotherham MBC who were in attendance, as requested by the Board at its last meeting, to provide an update on performance relating to long-standing individual member queries which members had expressed concerns about.

 

Members noted that, following years of good performance reporting, problems arose between late 2018 to early 2020 culminating in SYPA formally raising concerns in April 2020.

 

Three main areas of concern were highlighted.  These were:

 

·       Individual Member Queries

·       Monthly Data Collection (MDC) File Submission

·       Payment Discrepancies

 

An investigation found two main causes for the reduction in performance levels:

 

·       Lost MDC interface functionality, and general disruption, caused by the implementation of a new HR & Payroll system at RMBC.

·       The transfer of five key activity strands from SYPA to RMBC.

 

A programme of work to address the issues was agreed with both SYPA and RMBC investing significant time and resource to tackle the issues.  It was noted that substantial progress had been achieved during the last two years with two of the three areas of concern fully addressed and key aspects of the third progressed, but there remained a backlog of individual member queries to be cleared.

 

The briefing gave full details of all three areas of concern and the solutions identified and implemented.

 

With regard to individual member queries, based on the resolution of most of the underlying query causes and the addition of resource to the Pensions Team, the original expectation was that the query backlog would be worked down over period of 6 to 12 months.

 

This planned clearance of the backlog had not yet been delivered due to a number of factors.  The progress made and the impacting factors were detailed within the briefing as was a Clearance Plan.

 

It had become evident that further resource was required to clear the backlog and budgetary approval had now been given to recruit two additional temporary posts (for 12 months) within the Pensions Team with a sole focus on the SYPA backlog.

 

The target was to clear the backlog by the end of the financial year.  It was noted that this would be a challenging target that would be monitored on a regular basis as activity was progressed.

 

J Bailey confirmed that two of the three areas of concern had been successfully addressed.  With regard to the Clearance Plan, SYPA would meet regularly with RMBC and offer support where possible.  The plan to clear the backlog seemed realistic and would be kept under constant review.

 

In answer to a question from A Gregory, L Mann agreed that filling the temporary posts could be a challenge, but there would be an opportunity for internal development and, if necessary, agency staff could be used.

 

C Scott, on behalf of the Board, welcomed the engagement as a positive move and queried whether other employers who RMBC provided payroll services for were aware of the backlog.

 

It was confirmed by A Rogers that Doncaster MBC had been fully briefed.

 

J Bailey commented that SYPA had not directly contacted the other affected employers but would now keep them up to date with discussions and progress.

 

D Webster queried what would happen if the backlog was not reduced as expected.

 

A Rogers replied that, having tackled the root causes, and made sure the team were ‘working smarter’ and looking at all the other issues, the only solution would be to allocate yet more resources.  The situation would be monitored regularly to ensure it was on track.

 

The Chair thanked A Rogers and L Mann for attending the meeting to explain the current position, it was very much appreciated.

 

The Director commented that the Board now needed to formally decide how to progress.  There was the option to let the process run its course or receive further updates.

 

N Doolan-Hamer suggested that further monitoring would be needed.

 

J Bailey agreed and suggested an update at the next Board meeting in October, further updates could also be provided in the monthly updates which were now provided for Authority and Board members.

 

The Board discussed what further steps could be taken if improvement was not seen in the coming months.

 

J Bailey commented that the Administration Strategy could be used to issue fines but he felt that that was not needed at the moment due to the efforts RMBC were making to address the issue.  Ultimately the matter could be reported to the Pensions Regulator.  Again it was thought that this was not appropriate at the moment, but if the situation changed it would be imperative to ensure that all affected employers were aware of the situation.

 

J Bailey continued with the Administration update providing details of staffing and sickness levels.  In response to a question from N Doolan-Hamer, J Bailey confirmed that staff who tested positive for Covid but were well enough to work would do so but were advised to work from home.

 

A lot of feedback had been received from staff regarding the Authority’s flexible working policy which would be reviewed over the next few months looking at how it was working for both staff and the organisation.

 

C Scott queried whether productivity whilst working from home, or in general, would be looked at as part of the review.

 

J Bailey commented that a detailed piece of work had not yet been done due to the difficulty of like-for-like comparisons during lockdown although it was intended to look at this in the future.

 

He also confirmed that, at the moment, with the current establishment and no vacancies, his view was that there was enough resource to deal with the current casework.  However it was recognised that development projects had been adversely impacted over the last couple of years.  In the next few months the position would be clearer around the success of dealing with backlogs and this would be presented to the Board in future.

 

G Graham commented that he had been asked to do a piece of work for a meeting of the Staffing Committee in October around the longer-term resources and organisational resilience.

 

The biggest decision that would have to be made late this year/early next year in terms of running the organisation would be regarding the Pensions Administration system if Civica had failed to deliver the improvements promised by the dates set out in the improvement plan.  It was recognised that this was a massive decision both financially and operationally.  The Board would be kept informed of the situation.

 

Members attention was drawn to the table at paragraph 5.9 which showed performance figures for the first full quarter for deferred members who had used the facility to retire online.  This showed that the percentage completed within target was a lot higher than for those who had not used the facility.  It was now being investigated if this could also be used for active members.

 

Paragraph 5.11 provided a summary of cases outstanding to 30^th June 2022.  There remained two areas of concern – aggregations and unprocessed leavers.  

 

N Doolan-Hamer commented that the number of cases did not seem to be reducing as expected.

 

J Bailey replied that work on the valuation and Annual Benefit Statements had impacted on this area.  Now the valuation was nearing completion there should be no barriers to the Projects Team focusing on aggregations and reducing the numbers in the future.  By the end of next quarter it should be possible to estimate what could realistically be achieved by the end of the financial year.

 

The report also gave details on:

 

·       Statutory Disclosure Reporting

·       Employer Performance

·       Individual Query Employer Reporting

·       Contribution Payments

·       Scheme Member Engagement

·       Annual Benefit Statements and the Triennial Valuation

·       Child Review Exercise

 

In answer to a question from C Scott, J Bailey confirmed that there would be an update on the Data Quality Plan at the next meeting.

 

RESOLVED:

 

i)       That the report be noted.

 

ii)      That an update on Rotherham MBC’s performance in relation to outstanding individual member queries be brought to the next meeting of the Board.