Agenda item

This paper sets out a summary of the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) in providing a pension administration service to the Hammersmith & Fulham Pension Fund.

Eleanor Dennis (Head of Pensions) presented the report which summarised the performance of the Local Pension Partnership Administration (LPPA) in providing a pension administration service to the HFPF during the period between October 2022 and March 2023, i.e, from Q2 to Q4 of 2022/23. 

Addressing Councillor Nikos Souslous’ concern of including helpdesk performance as one of the KPIs, Eleanor Dennis noted that although the set of KPIs remained the same since LPPA coming on board, its MD agreed to consider including helpdesk data as one of the performance indicators in the future.

Councillor Souslous referred to concerns on the difference between the average wait time and the longest wait time range from over 2 minutes for helpdesk calls and its fluctuating trend of more than 15 minutes, and asked how this had been taken care of.  Eleanor Dennis said she had consulted the LPPA’s Strategic Director on the big gap between the two extremes and undertook to relay any feedback received to the Board. She further noted that Dec 22 had the lowest number of calls but a big increase in average wait time which was due to Christmas break/annual leave.

ACTION: Eleanor Dennis

Replying to Councillor Souslous’ further question on recording and processing the cases received before the Christmas gap/annual leave, Eleanor Dennis recalled her challenge on LPPA’s performance in last December that while understanding the stretch of resources during system migration, the LBHF, as a client, would expect LPPA to be resilient and still able to deliver in line with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) targets.

The Chair sought the reason why the processing of death cases was particularly poor in Q3 of 2022/23. Eleanor Dennis advised that there was an incorrect trigger of recording the cases before the department had got the relevant information for processing.  As the system clock had already started ticking before the processing, these cases hence failed to meet the SLA target of 5 working days.  David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) appreciated that the LPPA had acknowledged the impact on reporting and taken steps to rectify the situation.

The Chair referred to page 58 of the agenda pack and asked how the SLA targets in respect of the performance standard had been set.  Eleanor Dennis noted that the service levels for individual case types were set out in the discharge agreement drawn up by LPPA, with SLA targets ranging 5, 10 or 15 days.  She added that during the report period from January to March 2023, the KPI target of 95% was met by 4 case types.

The Chair reiterated the PFC’s request to review the discharge agreement.  He also requested for a copy of the discharge agreement to enhance members’ understanding of the SLA and KPI targets. David Hughes clarified that PFC had not asked to review the discharge agreement but rather asked if there was a clause for financial recompense for poor performance, which there was not. The Committee had accepted the proposed increase in budget plus sending the LPPA a strong worded letter for performance improvement. Eleanor Dennis added that as agreed with the Chair of PFC, the draft formal letter was being held back pending the performance data for Q1 of 2023/24 (April to June 2023).

RESOLVED

The Board noted the contents of the report.