Agenda item

A report for the committee’s ongoing oversight of:

·       Scheme, Regulatory, Legal and Fund Update

·       Risk Register

·       Administration – KPI review – 1 October 2023 to 29 February 2024

·       SWAP Audit KPI 2023/24 update

·       Training update (verbal)

Jennifer Devine, Head of Wiltshire Pension Fund, supported by other officers, presented the Headlines and Monitoring report.

The Committee received a presentation from Nat Harrison, Acting Employer Services Work Management Officer, which provided an update on iConnect for 2024. The presentation covered the following points, including but not limited to:

·       An overview of iConnect related highlights for 2024.

·       Work which had been conducted to improve provision for new employers, including an online video and updates to the existing online resource guide.

·       New developments for the EST Officers were outlined, including a bitesize reference library folder and personal training and development plans.

·       An outline of the new controls in place was provided, including a mandatory pre-onboarding checklist for new employers.

·       Strategic documents including an Employer Data Quality Categorisation Policy and Employer Data Quality Checking Guide had been approved in January 2024.

·       An overview of what was coming soon was provided, including further website updates, iConnect functionalities and a 2024 Employer Forum.

The Committee discussed the presentation, with reference made to whether the Fund was reliant on employers’ controls, which the Fund had no control over. Clarification was provided that there were several controls in place at the time of submission that were embedded into iConnect, allowing the system to refer to existing records for a particular member. Additionally, there were checks in place at many levels and areas, which would prompt employers to check their submissions if incorrect. It was further clarified that data submissions were checked and confirmed before being added to the system.

Reference was made to the error rate of checks, to which it was outlined that there are tolerances set and thresholds to ensure that over checking does not take place at an administration cost. Over the last 6 months the error rates of checking have decreased with much less submissions being referred back and it was expected that data is 99% correct. It was also clarified that when employers outsource payroll, it would be up to them who they delegate their payroll to and that a lot of payment providers are those used by other funds using iConnect.

Further clarity was sought regarding how things were progressing with the onboarding process for Swindon, with it noted that there had been some teething problems, including some issues with the cancellation of payments in the accounting department and issues with previous submissions being a thousand out, which would need to be accurate to be aligned. It was assured that the team was working closely with Swindon to resolve issues with it hoped that the issues could be resolved as soon as possible.

The Committee received a presentation from Matt Thorpe, Service Improvement Lead Analyst, which provided an update on aggregations and backlog. The presentation covered the following points, including but not limited to:

·       An overview of the Service Improvement team was provided, with it noted that the team often seconds other members of staff into the team on a temporary basis depending on skills.

·       There was a big project to clear out old cases and clean data, which within 6 months led to the case backlog being reduced by 3,500 cases as well as being able to identify what had caused the backlog.

·       Work was conducted on the letters used by the team, after it had been identified that they were complicated. Currently work is being conducted to sign off on having 32 letters rather than the 197 previously used.

·       An overview of other work which had been achieved was provided, including work relating to bulk processing and automation.

The Committee discussed the presentation, with it clarified thar there were currently 20 processes guides in place and that a further 4 would be required to finish the work. Detail was provided that one of the seconded members of staff had been completing a pensions degree and had expertise in linguistics and language, which therefore allowed her to head up the letters project and look at it from a member’s perspective. It was noted thar there was a desire for the letters to be simplified and that this would go through a comms manager to enable the letters to take a simplified form. It was clarified that though the backlogs and aggregations work had been completed, the team had not been on top of the business-as-usual work, however this would be able to be cleared in time.

The Committee received an update from Richard Bullen, Fund Governance Manager on the Risk Register, which noted that there had been three areas of change recommended by the Local Pension Board, including fund governance, investment and performance. The Fund Governance manager also provided detail on audit, with it noted that there would be a transition to a new external auditor, Grant Thornton. Regarding performance, it was noted that at the end of last year there had been increased risk through transition payments from SAP to Oracle, with a number of payments not paid or duplicated. Additionally, since February the risk regarding outsourced projects had been downgraded as this had been completed and brought back in house. A further change was that finance had been identified as an increased risk due to the migration to Oracle.

The Fund Governance Manager also provided details on the KPI audit, which had been commissioned last year and completed in December. There had been a lot of progress in this area, however as the recommendations were yet to be fully implemented, Officers requested an extension to the target date from 31 March to 30 June 2024.

An update was provided in respect of changes to the risk register for the period to 31 December. The Committee discussed the updates provided by the Fund Governance Manager, with further clarification provided that there was not a risk associated with pensions relating to the unaudited Wiltshire Council accounts and that many conversations had taken place with Deloitte and Grant Thornton regarding this area. It was hoped that there would be progress made by Deloitte to get the outstanding accounts published and signed off by 30 September 2024.

The Committee received an update from James Franklin, Pension Administration Lead on administration KPIs, with it noted that from the period of 1 December 2023 to 29 February 2024 the backlog had increased. There had been a focus for the administration team on training in office, which has occurred for every team member every Wednesday. Feedback for the training had been positive. It was outlined that the transfer to Altair payroll had improved processing times and the processing team had also welcomed two new starters with the member services team also set to welcome a new starter. As per the report in the agenda pack, the number of cases older than 2 years was now down to 101 with it hoped that these would be down to 0 by the end of the next quarter. It was noted that the team was slightly not staying on top of business-as-usual work due to the training focus however this would expect to change in the future.

The Committee discussed the update with it clarified that every member of the team has been receiving training and that this has helped existing staff to better follow processes and procedures as well as enabling better practices.

At the conclusion of debate, it was,

Resolved:

The Committee agreed to:

·       Approve the risk register recommendations made by the Board and the officer assessment of risk as presented in the December version of the risk register.

·       Note progress in the SWAP KPI audit update and approve an extension to the target deadline to 30 June 2024.