Focus November 2021
A downloadable version of this newsletter is available below.
Employer Focus- November 2021 (251 KB)
The Pension Fund Forum 2021 AGM was held on 2 November 2021 and once again proved to be a very successful event. Presentations were made by Fund Officers and Hyman’s Robertson (the Fund Actuary) and covered the following:
- Presentation of the 2020/21 Annual Report and Accounts
- Investment and LGPS Central pool update
- Actuarial update by the Fund’s Actuary – Hymans Robertson
Full copies of the AGM presentations are available here
In October all Academies were invited to a join an Accounting Briefing Session presented by the Fund’s Actuary. The session covered the following areas:
- Pension Arrangements for Academies
- Funding v Accounting differences
- FRS102 reporting assumptions and data
- Building up the balance sheet
- Accounting FAQs
- Current topics
The presentation slides can be found below:
Accounting Briefing Session for Academies October 2021 (1.24 MB)
Staffordshire County Council is legally responsible for the Staffordshire Pension Fund. Managing the Fund's affairs effectively is one of our main aims and under the County Council’s constitution, the Pensions Committee are delegated to look after the affairs of the Fund.
As well as nine elected council members, the Pensions Committee has six co-opted members. The co-opted members cannot vote at meetings but play the valuable role of representing, and being able to voice, the views from organisations that have employees who are members of the Fund.
As a co-opted member of the Pensions Committee, you would be expected to attend meetings, which are held on a quarterly basis, and potentially deal with queries received from employers within the sector you represent. During the year training sessions are also arranged for Committee members, which you would be expected to attend.
We are currently looking for representatives from the Education Sector,
If you feel you would be interested in taking up this role, please e-mail the Fund’s Communication Officer: martin.griffiths@staffordshire.gov.uk
The closing date for registering your interest is 17 December 2021
This informal group consists of representatives from across the Fund’s Employer base e.g. District Councils, educational establishments, private companies and other participating organisations. The group meets quarterly, to discuss a range of issues relating to pensions which impact the work of Scheme Employers and Fund Officers. The primary purpose of the Group is:
- to enable the Fund Officers to work collaboratively with Scheme Employers
- to share best practice
- to discuss current pensions issues and their impact on the Staffordshire Pension Fund, Scheme Employers and the LGPS and the wider pensions industry
- to encourage engagement between the peer group members (representing the Scheme Employers) and Fund Officers, to improve the exchange of information, accurate data and communication
- provide feedback to the Fund Officers to assist them when implementing improvements
- agree on ideas for future Scheme Employer training events.
If you are interested in joining this group and are able to represent your Scheme Employer , please contact Simon Jackson (01785) 276450 or email simon.jackson@staffordshire.gov.uk
Last month we started to send out historic member data requests to all key Employer contacts and we are aiming to have all initial requests issued by the end of November.
The data request includes details of LGPS members the Fund understands are in scope for this review. The requests are being sent by encrypted Secure File Transfer to nominated key or appropriate contacts within your organisation.
Included in the request is an Introduction letter, Completion Guidance Notes, and a Data Template partially completed with all the LGPS members that your organisation has employed during the relevant period from April 2014. This will include employees have who have since left your organisation since 2014.
So far we have contacted 80% of our Employers and would like to thank those Employers who have downloaded their files and are actively working through the required actions to complete the Data Template.
We would like to remind Employers that:
- Secure files are available to download from the email link for 10 calendar days from receipt.
- You must return the required data within 3 calendar months from receipt of the data request.
- Data returns must be sent back to us and submitted by secure methods, to protect the confidential data they contain.
Any questions/queries you may have can be submitted to SPFdata@staffordshire.gov.uk where we will work closely with you to update and resolve these.
If you require any further information or clarification, please do not hesitate to contact Martin Griffiths, Communication Officer
martin.griffiths@staffordshire.gov.uk
01785 276070