Meeting documents

Return to Agenda

COPY
ITEM PF12

BEST VALUE COMMITTEE - 15 JANUARY 2003

OXFORDSHIRE PENSION FUND ADMINISTRATION REVIEW IMPLEMENTATION REPORT

Report by Director of Business Support & County Treasurer

1. A report detailing the review of the Oxfordshire Pension Fund Administration was submitted to the Best Value Committee on 27 March 2002. This report looked at seven areas:

• Review the level & quality of the present CSL service and compare the current service against best practice service provision
• Establish a specification that will meet the needs of all stakeholders
• Compare the cost of providing the specification
• Consider, supported by evidence, how the specification should be provided after termination of current CSL contract on 31 March 2003
• Carry out consultation exercise with stakeholders
• Review the procedures used to handle complaints
• Review process and cost of administering fire pensions and teachers’ compensation payments

2. There were 10 specific actions arising from these.

1. Agree & Implement Pension Administration Development Programme, starting April 2003

Completed. The development plan has been prepared (Annexe 1). (download as .doc file) The development plan includes tasks related to, but not specifically arising from the Best Value review, which are timetabled over the period July 2002 to April 2004. A separate table giving details of the tasks and progress with those is also attached (Annexe 2).(download as .doc file)

2. Consult with Pensions Staff & Employing Bodies on the revised (draft) service specification for effective introduction from April 2003

Revised Completion Date to 30 September 2003. The consultants used in the Best Value review produced a draft service specification which was circulated and discussed at a Pension User Group Meeting. The group is made up of HR or Payroll staff from the employing bodies e.g. District Councils, Parish Councils and some Colleges. Some members of the group volunteered to join a working group to take this issue forward. No other progress has yet been made since these draft service specifications will be part of the process of implementing workflow* and until the transfer of the pension team to OCC is complete no further action will be taken

3. Best Value Committee to confirm Option A strategy for in-house provision of service from 1 April 2003. Pension Fund Committee to approve at May 2002 meeting

Completed.

4. Appoint Pension Fund Manager to strengthen management of pension function (including investment management). An appointment in Spring/Summer of 2002 is proposed subject to approval of the Pension Fund Committee at May 2002 meeting

Completed.

5. Improve the levels of communication and quality of information given to all scheme members, and in particular:
   
   

1. All scheme members who need information about transfers to the LGPS from other pension schemes and
2. Members about to retire from the scheme.
   
   

Revised Completion Date to 30 September 2003. Although this task did not have a completion date it ties in with the draft service specification and as such will not be implemented until all procedures are analysed and reviewed for the implementation of workflow.

6. Improve the timeliness of the lump sum payment so that all recently retired members receive it within the time period specified in the new service specification. Improve the timeliness of the first pension instalment so that all recently retired members receive it within the time period specified in the new service specification.

Revised Completion Date to 30 September 2003. Again this falls within the review of services standards and so will be incorporated in this process.

7. A formal complaints procedure and monitoring process should be incorporated into the service provision. This should be an item in the development programme.

Revised Completion Date to 30 June 2003. Malcolm Leeding (Beneficiaries Observer) has produced a flowchart of the complaints processes. We are also in the process of recording all complaint information. These steps, along with better and more open publicising of the procedures will make the whole process more open and allow us to report on the number and type of complaints made.

However until the implementation of workflow is complete we not be able to use these as a percentages of the work we do in total.

8. Pension training for employing body HR staff should be introduced. This should be an item in the development programme.

Ongoing. This item in the development plan is due for completion in September 2003. We will be implementing a training course(s) for HR staff based in the District Councils, Parish Councils, Housing Associations, and Colleges and for any other employer belonging to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

9. Investigate the computerisation of the fire-fighters pension records as a matter of urgency and obtain appropriate funding from within the County in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer.

Revised Completion Date to 30 April 2003. This issue is to be discussed along with the review of charges in the first quarter of 2003. It has been delayed for two reasons:

1. Our resources have been concentrating on implementation of the pension payroll.
2. The issue of document imaging to facilitate the move is a higher priority.
   
   
10. Review the charges for Fire and Teachers pension administration and in consultation with the Chief Fire Officer and Director of Education revise charges for implementation with effect from 1 April 2003.
    
    

Ongoing. This issue is to be discussed in the first quarter of 2003.

*AXIS task management or workflow is software that will allow us to break every task down into its component parts and to allocate a time to each individual part. To do this properly we need to look at our current procedures taking into account the move back into OCC for the pension team and the changes arising from this, the draft service specification produced by the consultants during the BV review and the consultation with our stakeholders.

Conclusion

3. In some cases actions have been delayed simply because they are secondary to the necessity of bringing the pension team and service back into OCC by 1 April 2003.
4. The team will be relocating to County Hall 4^th floor, although the exact location is yet to be determined. The space issues mean that even though we have the ability to incorporate the staff there is no possibility of being able to accommodate their files, which number approximately 38,000. We have been unable to find a way of storing these files whilst maintaining the almost daily access necessary. Therefore the only way in which we can move forward is to have all these files document imaged.
5. Document imaging of the files will be out sourced, but it still requires us to index the files prior to imaging and ensuring that we have the correct I.T. in place to enable our team to access the information.
6. The workflow system (AXIS task management) would normally be in place prior to the imaging of any documents, however this is not feasible with the timescale and other issues that need to be addressed.
7. It is our intention that once the imaging of backlogged files and the office move has taken place this process can be started. Within the process we will need to look at our service standards and each individual process within all tasks so that a time allocation can be made for each. This will then form the basis of our workflow and provide statistics as to how well we are performing against our standards.

RECOMMENDATIONS

8. The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

1. note the progress made by the review team, and request a further report on implementation in January 2004; and
2. ask the Chair of the Pension Fund Committee to consult on consideration by the Pension Fund Committee.

CHRIS GRAY
Director for Business Support & County Treasurer

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Sally Fox, Pensions Services Manager

December 2002

Return to TOP