Agenda item

10:15

This report will review progress against the key priorities set out in the Annual Business Plan 2023/24.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to

a)    review progress against each of the key service priorities as set out in the report; and

b)    agree any further actions to be taken to address those areas not currently on target to deliver the required objectives.

Sean Collins, Service Manager Pensions, presented the report to the Committee. The Committee received updates on the four priority areas as below:

Delivery of the Regulatory Changes

All the actions were green as the government had still not provided responses and with respect to the pension dashboard, the government had delayed after the targets had been set. A project was ongoing around McCloud and this would be reported later on the agenda. It was reported that suitable progress was being made on all the changes from government.

Improving the Governance Arrangements for the Fund

Most of the targets were given a green status and two were amber. The Workforce Strategy was delayed as government guidance was being waited for over a year and this had still not arrived. It had been agreed that the work needed to be started and a report would be presented to the Committee at the March 2024 meeting.

ACTION: Full Workforce Strategy Report to be March 2024 Agenda

Councillor Jo Robb asked about the discussion that had taken place at a previous meeting about the Committee structure as the Committee had agreed that there would be additional voting members, which had been endorsed. The Service Manager informed the Committee that it had been endorsed by Council and they were currently waiting for the actual appointment of the two new elected members which was due to be agreed at Council on 12 December 2023. The Vice Chair added that the political balance still needed to be agreed.

ACTION: The Executive Director of Resources to contact Democratic Services for the political balance of the two new elected members of the Committee.

The second amber target was the knowledge assessment, a target was set to increase the average score of the Committee. The target was not hit hence the target remained amber.

The Delivery of Enhancing the Delivery of Responsible Investment Responsibilities

There were two amber targets on how to extend work done on the listed markets to the private markets. A lot of good information had been collected but were looking to still work with Brunel to extend the metrics. The second amber target was around decarbonisation where the single metric target had not been met.  However, it was agreed that more balanced set of metrics were required to assess overall alignment with the Paris Treaty so work was still ongoing around this target.

The Chair and Committee congratulated Officers for the green targets on the successful application in respect to the Stewardship Code.

The Committee were informed about a meeting that had taken place with the client group about the Engagement Policy and it had been agreed that further work was required, and a full report would be presented at the March 2024 Committee meeting. Transparency had been discussed with Brunel and how much should be in the public domain, discussions were still taking place with other funds.

ACTION: Item on the Engagement Policy to be added to March 2024 Agenda.

Councillor Jo Robb commented that more needed to be done on the good stories and how the Fund was leading the way in many areas. More Communications needed to come directly from the Communications Team.

ACTION: Look into more communication on the good stories

Deliver more Efficiency and Effectiveness through enhanced technology

A number of targets were amber, for these the results were still being awaited.

Councillor Bulmer asked for timescales on the Pension Board to review the survey results and work with Officers action to improve assessment process.

Councillor Howson commented on the postal system and was informed that this was currently being tested for the McCloud changes which members must be informed about.

The budget update remained the same as last reported.

ACTION: The timescales to be included to actions on targets.

RESOLVED: that the Committee reviewed the progress against each of the key service priorities as set out in the report and agreed further actions above to be taken to address the areas not currently on target to deliver the required objectives.