The report of the Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund (Document “D”) will be submitted to the Joint Advisory Group to provide details relating to the finalising of a five-year business plan which highlights objectives for the Fund and documents the priorities and improvement to be implemented to help achieve those objectives.

Recommended –

That the report be noted.

(Ola Ajala – 01274 432343)

Resolved –

That the report be noted.

Action: Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund

The report of the Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund (Document “D”) was submitted to the Group to provide Members with details of the 5-year Business Plan including its objectives and priorities and how these would be achieved.

The plan would be formally reviewed and approved annually in addition to ongoing monitoring and updates as necessary throughout each year.

The 5 key objectives, as set out in the plan came under the following categories:

·                Governance

·                Funding

·                Investments

·                Administration

·                Communications

The report included details of developments and changes that would impact WYPF which were focused on by the Fund to put WYPF in a strong position to meet future challenges.

There were a number of key focus points included in the business plan with a detailed account of these in the business plan document (Appendix A).

Officers stated that it was the first comprehensive 5-year business plan and would be brought to JAG each year.  It would be a working document that would reflect response to ongoing issues and developments.  The most recent being updates to McCloud, the pensions dashboard, online member self-service, the Pension Regulator’s single Modular Code, good governance review and compliance with the TCDF (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures).  The plan placed everything that the Fund wished to achieve in one place.

Members were then given the opportunity to comment or ask questions, the details of which and the responses given are as below.

·                Officers were commended that the business plan document was easy to understand, well set out and could be understood by anyone to see what WYPF were doing

·                Were employers who were experiencing issues submitting data correctly or on time presenting a problem as there were numerous member of the organisation? Officers advised that employer training was key to ensure that data was of good quality and submitted in a timely manner.  Employees responsible for the submission of data appeared to change frequently so there was a task to keep current member employers trained.  WYPF had recently employed employer engagement officers and had another 2 vacancies to fill to strengthen the team.  They further stated that training was being delivered online and via webinars with continued and improving engagement.  Issues still prevailed with some smaller employers but engagement would continue.

Process automation for data submission was included in investments planned and phase 3 of this would see data errors having to be resolved at the employer end before submission to WYPF. 

·                Officers were asked to explain employer flexibilities and were advised that there were 3 elements:

Change of rate between validations

Employers who exit the fund with a surplus – lump sum payments

Deferred agreement option (debt spreading agreement)

These were explained more fully in the funding strategy statement document.

Resolved –

That the report be noted.

Action: Director, West Yorkshire Pension Fund