Agenda item

The Board reviewed the Business Plan.

Richard Sultana introduced the report and provided an update that a further IDRP had been received, the details of which would be reported to the next Board meeting. The Fund’s KPI targets were being reviewed and the member’s experience at the point of contact was being examined. All employee annual benefits statement had been delivered on time. The latest employer newsletter had reaffirmed the importance to employers of completing and returning the McCloud checklist/declarations form. In future, all management goals would be assigned a specific objective for appraisal that would be in line with the Business Plan. This would enable the Board to understand the progress made with tangible outcomes.

In the ensuing debate, the following points were made:

·         The Chairman noted that it was important to record that all the annual benefits statements (ABS) had been delivered on time despite the difficulties experienced in the post-covid world

·         In response to a query, Richard Sultana explained that the receipt of “not known at this address” responses had been highlighted as a key area to address in terms of the roll out of the ABS. The Fund utilised a tracing company to tackle this issue. It was important that member information was kept up-to-date. The Chairman added that the Fund’s records reflected that the overall number of members joining the Fund was declining

·         Had the Fund looked at the diversity of its active membership for example looking at protected characteristics? Richard Sultana responded that he was keen to allocate more resources to fund engagement with members. A clearer picture of the diversity would allow the Fund to tailor its communication approach to improve engagement with a wider range of members

·         In relation to a query about missing member information, Richard Sultana indicated that the Fund did not have contact details for approximately 3k members, albeit for many of these, the amounts involved tended to be small. This would be a key area of focus going forward, using the national database to gather data

·         Richard Sultana explained that an integrated skills matrix for technical competency was being introduced which would enable the service to be able to identify areas where administration staff required or would benefit from training

·         Was any information gathered on members who were in employment but had decided to defer their contributions, possibly because they could not afford the contributions in the current financial circumstances? Richard Sultana responded that this had been identified as an issue. The key aspect was to communicate with members (and employers as the conduit) on the benefits, including the employer match funding as well as the importance of remaining in the Fund so that members could make the right financial decision for themselves

·         A lot of employees did not realise that their contribution was match-funded by their employer. Were the trade unions engaged on this matter? Richard Sultana confirmed that engagement with trade unions was part of the workforce strategy. Odette Fielding confirmed that trade unions encouraged their members to join the Fund and also encouraged members to invite colleagues to join

·         The danger was that members saw the financial benefits of a colleague opting out of the Fund and the issue gathered momentum through word of mouth. In response, it was commented that it would not be possible for the Fund to find this level of information within individual teams however monitoring the movement of members would give the Fund a better chance of identifying the need for more engagement

·         Richard Sultana explained that the Fund used the Insights software to track trends and the Fund worked with employers to establish where opt outs or 50/50 applications were occurring. He would provide the Board with more information about the level of opt-outs and the plans to pre-empt them.

The Board noted the Worcestershire Pension Fund (WPF) Business Plan as at 26 August 2022.