Agenda item

Reports of the Director of People Services.

Updates on the BT Managed Services Improvement Plan and Surrey Pension Administration Performance.

5.1       Lee Witham (Director of People Services) introduced the first report on this item in respect of the BT Managed Services Improvement Plan. He referred to the main problems impacting on performance of pensions, including the lack of interface detailing staff starters and leavers which meant that these details were having to be manually entered which was a slow process and increased the chance of human error. The lack of interface had led to some pension records being out of date or absent.  Members were advised that Surrey County Council and BT had been requested to work collaboratively to resolve this issue.

5.2       Lee Witham informed the Committee that there were also problems in respect of those who had opted out of the Pension Scheme who had supposed to have been auto-enrolled. This had not appeared to have been undertaken and BT had agreed to write to affected employees again that they are due to be auto-enrolled unless they wished to opt out.

5.3       In respect of Annual Benefits Statements, Lee Witham advised that approximately 250 pension scheme members had not yet received their statements. This affected those who were absent in 2015/16 for example because they were on maternity leave or on long term sick leave. An update from BT on when the correct data would be sent to Surrey County Council was awaited.

5.4       Gareth Wood (Head of Finance for the Shared Service Centre, BT) was then invited to address the Committee and he advised that an interface was being developed and a draft had been sent to Surrey County Council who had requested some changes. Gareth Wood stated that the auto-enrolment issue had now been rectified and that the Annual Benefits Statement would be incorporated into the interface and all statements would be sent out by the end of the year.

5.5       Craig Anderson (Service Delivery Director, BT) added that it was acknowledged that there was too much manual inputting presently required, however an IT tool was being developed to address this issue. Staff members were also being re-skilled and offered more support and additional resources were now available for the Pensions Team, with points of failure being identified. Members noted that there had been a particular issue with teachers’ pensions.

5.6       During Members’ discussions, it was asked to what extent had the issues been resolved to date and how was the interface progressing. Members sought an explanation as to why the problems had persisted for such a length of time and when was it expected that all problems would be resolved. The Committee expressed its surprise that staff did not have the sufficient skills from the outset, especially as some aspects of processing the information appeared relatively straightforward. It was remarked that the training and upskilling should have taken place in 2015 before the new pension administration arrangements went live. Members sought further details in respect of problems concerning teachers’ pensions and were there any other aspects of pension administration that could potentially become a problem. A Member commented that she had heard that there also had been problems relating to overtime payments since 2014 and she asked for further details on this.

5.7       In reply to issues raised by Members, Gareth Wood acknowledged that the present situation was not ideal, however in terms of the interface the reports that had been developed had been thoroughly tested and checked for all tri-boroughs. He felt that once the interface was in place, performance would improve appreciably. Gareth Wood stated that a holistic review had been completed over a whole cycle and had strengthened front end controls and upskilled staff and as a result he did not anticipate any new issues arising.

5.8       Craig Anderson stated that BT were seeking to appoint additional staff with the appropriate technical skills, however he stated that such skills were in short supply and existing BT staff were also being upskilled. Staff had been appointed from across the country and the Pensions Team were being trained to acquire Agresso skills.

5.9       Lee Witham emphasised the need for Surrey County Council, BT and the Council to work collaboratively to resolve the issues and it had been impressed upon both Surrey County Council and BT of the need to bring in more resources, including staff, and skills. He advised that he could not give a definitive date as to when all issues would be resolved, however he felt that there was a full understanding of what the problems were and these could be resolved by working collaboratively.

5.10    Kim Edwards (Senior Pensions and Payroll Adviser) advised that there had been a tri-borough meeting with BT in October and a further one would take place in December to work through outstanding issues. She stated that Council officers would also be willing to visit BT to provide support and any training felt appropriate. Kim Edwards advised that a number of teachers’ pension returns had been submitted late and this had caused some delays. Steven Mair added that some teachers’ annual returns had not included sufficient data and this had caused further delays.

5.11    In respect of overtime payments, Jason Bailey (Pension Services Manager, Surrey County Council) stated that this was a complicated issue and Kim Edwards had offered to assist on this matter. He felt that training and paying sufficient attention to detail would address this issue.

5.12    The Chairman stated that a number of concerns about pension administration had been raised at the Pensions Annual General Meeting on 21^st September. He requested that BT representatives attend the next meeting on 21^st March 2017 to update Members on progress on this matter and advised that BT would continue to be invited to future meetings until the issues had been fully resolved.

5.13    Lee Witham then introduced a paper that provided an update on Surrey County Council pension administration performance.  He informed Members that the Council had been working collaboratively with Surrey County Council in producing a list of key performance indicators (KPIs) that better reflected the overall experience of the Fund’s members and he referred to the new KPIs added in the report. Kim Edwards added that the new KPIs also reflected issues that had been raised at Pensions Annual General Meeting, particularly where pension payments had been delayed.

5.14    Jason Bailey stated that there had already been a number of areas being measured by KPIs in the original list, however the updated list was even more comprehensive. In putting together the list of KPIs, he stated that the scale of investment needed to be taken into account.

5.15    During Members discussions, it was queried why the issues highlighted in the BT Managed Services Improvement Plan report had not been included in the KPI list. Members asked whether officers were satisfied that sufficient progress was being made in achieving the KPIs. Further explanation was also sought as to why it was taking so long for the interface to be in place and go live.

5.16    In reply, Jason Bailey advised that the concerns highlighted in the BT Managed Services Improvement Plan report had not yet been included on the KPI list as there was a lack of information by which they could be measured, however once this data was available, they would be added to the KPI list. He felt that real progress was being made in achieving the KPI targets and the interface, which would be in place once all the relevant data had been captured. Members noted that useful feedback had been provided from Christopher Smith (Pension Board and Unison member) on Fund members’ experience.

5.17    Steven Mair added that issues beyond just pension administration matters needed to be addressed in respect of BT and this was why it had taken so long to resolve.

5.18    The Chairman emphasised the need for the KPI list to record the real performance and to include the concerns raised in the BT Managed Services Improvement Plan report. He also invited Christopher Smith to attend the next meeting on 21^st March 2017 to feedback his comments on the experience of pension scheme members.