Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chair and Vice Chair for the 2022-23 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED

It was unanimously agreed that Councillor Nikos Souslous be appointed Chair of Pensions Board and Councillor Rory Vaughan be appointed Vice Chair for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

There were no apologies for absence.

Khadija Sekhon was not in attendance.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as an accurate record.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 9 February 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

To note the minutes of the Pension Fund Committee meeting held on 28 February 2022.

The exempt minutes have been circulated to committee members only. Any discussion on the contents of exempt information will require the committee to pass the proposed resolution at the end of the agenda to exclude members of the public and press from the proceedings for that discussion.

RESOLVED

The Board noted the minutes of the previous Pension Fund Sub-Committee meeting held on 28 February 2022.

This paper provides a summary of activity in key areas of pension administration since the Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund began its new partnership with the Local Pension Partnership Administration.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) presented the report which provided an update on the Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund’s new partnership with the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) on 26 January 2022. She noted that the commencement of the service with LPPA had been challenging due to them implementing new software and processes. She added that LPPA had been responsive to the issues raised and there was a plan in place to resolve them.

The Board discussed the backlog of cases referenced in paragraph 5 of the report. William O’Connell asked what constituted a case. Eleanor Dennis said it meant an enquiry from a member about any aspect of their pension. William O’Connell asked how Board could be kept up to date in on these issues in between meetings. David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) said officers could provide the Pension Fund Committee update reports to the Board members between meetings.

ACTION: Eleanor Dennis / David Hughes

Neil Newton noted that he’d seen 5 different administrations over 25 years and none of them had managed the transfer of data properly. He asked how LPPA were appointed without proof of working software and said the Pension Fund Committee should be made aware that the procurement process seemed to have been lacking.

Eleanor Dennis advised the Board that the data set was very complex, with over 17,000 people’s information in the system. The software was not unproven, but it was new to the operator. It was chosen because it was significantly more efficient than the previous system and would result in cases being processed three times faster. It would also give members a better online experience. LPPA were working closely with the Council to resolve the problems. Eleanor said she was confident they will get to where they need to be.

David Hughes added that the relationship with LPPA was very different to the previous provider. They had engaged and recognised the quality was not where it needed to be. They were putting additional resource in and challenging the software provider to improve the situation.

Neil Newton said it didn’t seem as though the lessons from previous transfers had been taken on board. He was disappointed with the start of the new service. David Hughes noted that there was a thorough data cleansing effort prior to the transfer this time and the migration was far better and happened on schedule. The change to their software systems caused the issues.

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked if it was the change of software that had caused the unexpected increase in enquiries. Eleanor Dennis said a large number of the calls were to do with getting onto the portal. In response to this LPPA created videos to help users and simplified the process. She added that because the new system showed more information to members online it prompted members to challenge incorrect information such as a change of address.

David Hughes advised members that it was considered urgent to move away from the previous  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

This report provides the Board with updates on previous reports and actions agreed by the Pension Fund Sub-Committee on 3 February 2021 to appoint Local Pension Partnerships Administration to provide the Pension Administration service from 1 February 2022.

David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) presented the report which provided follow-up on previous reports to the Board on the actions agreed by the Pension Fund Sub-committee on 3 February 2021 to appoint Local Pension Partnerships Administration (LPPA) to provide the Pension Administration service from 1 February 2022. The new service subsequently went live on 26 January 2022.

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked if the new portal was more user friendly and if members could update their own information. David Hughes said the portal was better than the previous system and LPPA were more proactive about updating data and checking it against other sources. Officers noted that some pieces of key data user can’t be changed by the users themselves – for example, dates of birth need verifying. But they can update their address. And there were also more features coming, like requesting benefits estimates and tracking queries.

Councillor Vaughan asked how officers were checking LPPA’s work. He also asked for more information on the 40% of employers who had not engaged with the new portal. Eleanor Dennis said 40% of employers had not completed their membership details. To address this both the Council’s pensions team and LPPA’s engagement team will speak with them one-on-one to support them through the process and understand any issues that prevent them from complying. She noted that engaging certain employers was always a challenge for pensions administration.

The Chair asked if the employers that hadn’t engaged were mostly schools. Eleanor Dennis said they included schools and catering companies. They often relied on third party providers to give them data which added more complexity.

RESOLVED

1.    The Pensions Board noted the report.

This paper sets out a summary of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration in providing a pension administration service to the Fund.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) presented the report which gave an overview of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) in providing a pension administration service to the Fund. She noted that this was the first reporting quarter for new provider.

In response to a member’s question, Eleanor Dennis said one of main challenges had been system errors preventing retirement cases from being finished within the service level agreement timeframe. Those errors had been resolved. The systems team co-located with the call team during that period so they could provide real-time support. Since then, most cases have been resolved during calls.

Neil Newton asked if there was any better data to share since the report had been published. Eleanor Dennis said they had quarterly reporting from the LPPA, showing movement in a positive direction, that could be shared outside of the meeting.

ACTION: Eleanor Dennis

William O’Connell asked if the system issues had been due to data quality or software. Eleanor Dennis said the new software was the problem, not data quality. The team needed to familiarise themselves with the requirements of the new system.

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked how far beyond the SLA timeframe the majority of the issues were. Eleanor Dennis said most were only a few days. The system errors had been resolved by software provider Civica. There were still some cases in the backlog with IT issues, but those weren’t retirement cases.

RESOLVED

1.    The Pensions Board noted the report.

This paper provides a summary of the Pension Fund’s overall performance for the quarter ended 31 March 2022, a cashflow update and forecast, and an assessment of risks and mitigation actions.

Patrick Rowe (Pension Fund Manager) presented the report which provided a summary of the Pension Fund’s overall performance for the quarter ended 31 March 2022. He asked members to fill out the knowledge and skills self-assessment in Appendix 5.

ACTION: Board members

The Chair asked why, in Appendix 4, some of the risks had increased but the number remained the same (e.g., risk 6). Patrick Rowe said the intention was to show the trend of risk, even if the actual risk score hadn’t changed yet.

Councillor Rory Vaughan asked when the triennial valuation would take place and if the Board would receive a presentation and training on it. Patrick Rowe encouraged members to make a note of that in the training survey. He added that the valuation was based on figures at the end of March this year, but the process took several months.

RESOLVED

1.    The Pensions Board noted the report.

This report provides the outturn for the 2021/22 Business Plan.

Patrick Rowe (Pension Fund Manager) introduced the report which provided the outturn for the 2021/22 Business Plan. He highlighted the actions in the plan and noted that the majority had been achieved. Some of the actions not achieved related to administration where the team were focused on issues with the service. There were also some staffing issues with the audit provider, which was a wider problem.

The Chair said it wasn’t clear if the annual report and accounts had been published online. He also asked how many Freedom of Information (FOI) requests had been received. Patrick Rowe said the documents had been published online. And around 10 FOI requests had been received.

RESOLVED

1.    The Pensions Board noted the 2021/22 business plan outturn.

This paper provides a progress log of the recommendations that came from an independent review of the governance arrangements for the Pension Fund, and the results achieved to date.

Patrick Rowe (Pension Fund Manager) presented the report that tracked progress implementing the 32 recommendations from the report of an independent consultant commissioned by officers to carry out an independent review of the governance arrangements for the Pension Fund. He noted 27 of the 32 recommendations had been implemented.

Neil Newton noted that recommendation 23 wouldn’t matter for the vast majority of admitted bodies if an effective bond scheme was in place. He also questioned the ability of pension fund administrators to comment on the efficacy of compliance and monitoring arrangements. He asked if there was effective monitoring in place of the less robust schemes as they posed a risk to others. Mat Dawson (Strategic Finance Manager) said well worded admission agreements were important when dealing with outsourced providers. He said he would raise the concerns about admitted bodies with the Director of Treasury and Pensions.

Neil Newton said any employers not cooperating in the valuation exercise should be flagged as a potential risk. He asked for a written response about the bond scheme or admission agreement that safeguarded the rest of the fund members.

ACTION: Patrick Rowe / Mat Dawson

Councillor Rory Vaughan suggested holding a meeting in September to receive updates on pensions administration performance and the triennial valuation. The Chair said a meeting could be arranged in the Autumn if required.

RESOLVED

1.    The Pensions Board noted the report.

·       8 February 2023

Members noted the date of the next scheduled meeting on 8 February 2023.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 – ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Proposed resolution: Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Not required.