Agenda and minutes

No apologies received.

There were no declarations of interests.

A copy of the notes from the previous meeting held on 17^th May 2016are attached, for information.

The notes from the previous meeting held on 17^th May 2016 were presented to the Pension Board.

Action Agreed:

[1] That the notes be approved as a correct record.

Matters Arising

Training Update

The Head of People and Development provided a brief update on training at this point in the meeting.  She referred Members to a presentation from the Local Government Association which provided details of the Scheme Advisory Board and the Governance Framework in which the Scheme Manager (and the local pension boards) operated.  Copies of the slides are attached as an appendix to the notes.

The Head of People and Development added that the annual refresher training for Pension Board members would be arranged for April/May 2017 and requested that any outstanding development records be sent through to her as soon as possible.

Report of the HR Business Support Manager.

The HR Business Support Manager presented her report which provided an update on current issues relating to the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme.

The Board discussed the information provided and a number of comments/queries were raised:

Membership Statistics – The DCFO noted that the percentage of opted out members was almost 10% and queried if there was anything else that officers or Trade Union representatives could do to encourage members that had opted out to join the scheme.  The HR Business Manager explained that the main reason why members had opted out appeared to be financial and informed the board that members that had been re-enrolled as part of the current process had immediately opted back out. 

The Chair asked if Members were made aware of the benefits of the scheme and the comparisons with private sector schemes and the Board discussed what activities could be undertaken to promote the benefits of the scheme. The FBU representative commented that the union would be able to advocate the benefits of the scheme to its Members and it was suggested that a joint publication should be developed to promote the scheme.  The Service’s solicitor advised that officers would need to ensure that the publication would only provide information on the scheme and not specific pension advice.

Pension Administrator Performance – Kier’s Service Delivery Report was presented to the Board and provided information on performance for quarter one and two (2016/17). It outlined key pieces of work completed and also Kier’s performance against service level agreements. The Board noted that the overall performance against the contract was good.  

The Chair queried why Kier had responded to a consultation on death on duty survivors and whether the Service had responded.  The HR Business Manager

explained that the Service also received the firefighter pension consultations and reviewed and responded to them, where applicable.

Firefighter Pensions Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) – The Head of People and Development drew the Board’s attention to the SAB’s governance and advice framework and informed them that the HR Business Manager was on the regional pension officer group and that Penny Wright, GMFRS sat on the technical group.

Annual Benefits Statement (ABS) – The Board discussed the format and content of the ABS provided by Kier.  The Union representatives commented that they had received feedback from their members that the statements were confusing and it would be useful if there was further work carried out to try to simplify the statement.  The Head of People and Development explained that Kier were upgrading their current system and the Service could provide feedback on the reconfiguration and also on how to improve the guidance/explanatory notes that accompany the statements.  She requested that the Union representatives encourage members to send any queries/feedback to the HR Pensions team to enable the Service to provide relevant feedback to Kier.

Milne vs the Government Actuaries Department – The HR Business Manager informed the Board that all outstanding payments in relation to this issue had been paid and that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The next meeting of the Pension Board would be held in early May 2017.