Agenda item

A report for the Board’s ongoing oversight of:

•                Scheme, Regulatory, Legal and Fund Update

•                Risk Register

•                Administration KPI update – 1 January 2023 to 30 April 2023

a)    Key business plan items – Aggregation Backlogs / i-Connect & Controls / Resourcing

b)    Outsourcing updates

c)    McCloud & Dashboard update

•                Fund SWAP audit update 2022/23

•                Training –

a)    To update members on the Fund’s approach to member training.

The Board considered the report of Jennifer Devine - Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund which provided information highlighting key issues and developments to enable the Board to fulfil its monitoring role.

The report detailed updates in the following areas:

·       Headlines

·       Key business plan items – Aggregations backlog, i-Connect & controls and Resourcing.

·       Scheme, Regulatory, Legal and Fund Update

·       Risk Register

·       Administration KPI update – 1 January 2023 to 30 April 2023.

·       Fund SWAP audit actions log 2022/23

·       Training - Update members on the Fund’s approach to member training

In response to questions, the Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund, the Fund Governance Manager and the Pensions Fund Operations Manager explained that the aggregations backlog referred to the joining of employment records; appointment to the Employer Services Manager role to the new team structure was proving to be very challenging as suitably qualified applicants had not applied for the position; there may be a need for additional support for the development of a monthly cycle of work for the Employer Services Team; further investigations into the completion on target of the aggregations process with further information being sent to the Chairman and Cllr Richard Britton; it was anticipated that the KPI performance Improvement Plan would be met by early October 2023; officers confirmed that the Wiltshire Pension Fund Committee will be asked for an extension to complete progress against internal audit recommendation item 10 – KPI’s, Reports & Monitoring of Staff Productivity, however officers felt that item 9 – Workflow Management should still be achievable by 30 June 2023.

Following the Committee’s decision to defer approval of the members training plan for the scheme year 23/24 in favour of a revised training strategy, officers confirmed that the revised strategy will be presented to the Committee at their June Investment focused meeting. It was noted by the Board that the annual MiFID II self-certification exercise had taken 3 months to complete during the scheme year 2022/23. Officers therefore request Committee member support in being able to complete this exercise more quickly. 

The Chairman thanked officers for their clear and honest reporting.

Resolved:

a)    to note the Fund updates and progress against the Business Plan 2023/24 key priorities;

b)    to endorse the risk register in Appendix 2 & the summary of risk changes since the last review, as a true and fair view of the risks currently being experienced by the Fund and to recommend that endorsement to the Committee;

c)    to note the progress recorded on the SWAP audit actions log, as well as the changes to the target dates, which are in line with the key business plan activities approved by the Committee at their meeting in March 2023;

d)    To recommend to Committee members their support for officers concerning the Fund’s MiFID II compliance obligations.