Qualifications/Knowledge & Skills
1. Degree in relevant profession, or equivalent experience/skills. Licence / certificate / qualification required for the role.
2. ITQ 2 or equivalent ICT skills and abilities demonstrating significant experience in related IT systems.
3. Professional qualification in area of specialism (or equivalent experience).
4. Significant relevant professional experience post qualification in a similar work environment.
5. Expert knowledge in the area of specialism.
6. Expert knowledge of relevant policy, systems, work practices, professional guidelines, legislation and a good understanding of emerging developments in the area of specialism.
7. Excellent ICT skills including use of Microsoft applications and specialist systems.
8. Knowledge and experience of developing systems, policies, procedures and / or practices.
9. Good knowledge of the wider sector / external influences.
10. Detailed operational knowledge of systems in terms of functionality, capability and availability.
11. Excellent interpersonal, persuasion, influencing and negotiating skills.
12. Excellent planning and organisational skills, with proven ability to prioritise and co-ordinate workloads, monitor and evaluate work, to ensure deadlines are achieved.
13. Proven ability to apply initiative and strategic awareness to problem solving and decision making.
14. Ability to lead projects with service / organisation impact.
Overview
To provide evidenced assurance to the Pension Fund’s management team that all aspects of pensions administration are operating to a high quality standard, and that all processes, procedures, policies and strategies relating to pensions administration are fit for purpose, compliant, and are being correctly and consistently implemented by the pensions administration team. To lead on developing, implementing, evidencing and embedding a strategy and robust framework for quality assurance as it relates to pensions administration.
The overall responsibilities of the service/function are:
1. The Pension Fund is established under Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations. Its purpose is to meet all future pension liabilities of its scheme members, whilst at the same time seeking to minimise the contributions that need to be paid into the Fund by the employer bodies. The level of employer contributions is assessed every three years through an actuarial valuation of the Fund.
2. The Pension Fund administers pensions on behalf of over 180 different employer organisations, ranging from local authorities, FE colleges, academies, charities and third party service providers. The Pension Team is responsible for the governance and administration of the Pension Fund. The LGPS benefits being administered amount to liabilities, valued at the last triennial valuation of £2.7bn and these are funded by assets managed by the Fund of circ. £3bn. The Fund pays out benefits of around £100m each year and receives in contributions from employers of £120m.
3. The Fund must be administered in line with the appropriate statutory scheme and a variety of overarching legislation, including tax regulations. It also has to comply with various statutory guidance, in particular the Pension Regulator’s Code of Practice 13, which covers the governance requirements expected of all public sector pension schemes, including the LGPS. Importantly the Fund is required to report any breaches of the law to the Pension Regulator, whether they have occurred within the Fund or any of the scheme’s employers.
4. The correct administration is critical to ensure the Fund isn’t fined by the Pension Regulator along with the associated reputational risk, but the management of the Fund’s assets and liabilities is attributable to its solvency and determines the level of contributions to be paid by employer’s organisations, a significant cost for them (circa. £40m per annum for Wiltshire Council alone) and for many smaller employers this has a direct impact on their financial viability.
5. The Pension Fund ensures all pension benefits are paid correctly, on a timely basis and in line with the scheme regulations. It manages the relationships with the Fund’s 180+ scheme employers, overseeing the admission and cessation of these organisations.
6. It monitors and reviews the investment strategy of the Fund and brings forward proposals for improvement as appropriate to ensure the assets and costs of the Pension Fund are accounted for and reported correctly and legally. Investment manager services are procured on behalf of the Fund via the Brunel Pension Partnership, of which the Fund participates together with 9 other LGPS Funds.
7. It procures actuarial services and other third party providers which value more than £7m and to ensure the continual development and enhancement of the pension administration service by improving performance and appropriate development of IT.
Specific requirements for this post:
1. To develop a strategy for ensuring a high standard of quality control and assurance with regard to the calculation and processing of benefits, and to be responsible for delivering against this strategy, proposing improvements, and reporting on findings. This will include: ownership and review of the Benefits Calculation Assurance Strategy; spot checking; second line reviews, proactively working to identify potential areas of weakness and proposing solutions; engagement with the team to embed a high standard of quality control whilst promoting efficiency via an understanding of materiality; ownership of internal audit actions relating to benefits calculation; and any other work which could be reasonably understood to come under the umbrella of quality assurance.
2. To provide guidance and training to the Pensions Team to ensure they are conversant with all current and proposed regulatory matters. Horizon scanning for upcoming changes and forward planning for how to embed them within ways of working for the admin team.
3. To interpret all changes to the regulations of the schemes and using their expert knowledge to review and address the implications for the Pension Fund team to ensure all process remain compliant and to lead, manage, motivate and support other professional teams to achieve excellent results.
4. To use their specialist technical knowledge to review and interpret all the updates and technical changes to the Altair (Pension Database) software, understand its wider implications to the administration service and to devise a programme for implementing necessary changes to processes.
5. To undertake comprehensive manual testing of all benefit calculation routines, to ensure they meet the requirements of the appropriate Scheme Regulations as well as all statutory guidance and/or Pensions Regulator Codes of Practice.
6. Ensuring their advice is compliant with the requirements of the Pensions Regulator and the General Data Protection Regulations, reporting any breaches to the Fund Governance Manager and working with them to seek resolution.
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