Chris Norton (Strategy and Commissioning Manager (Treasury, Pension, Audit & Risk) stated that the policy had been updated and was presented to the Committee for comments. The fund team had gathered a list of all the policies relating to the fund’s activities and designed a schedule to make sure that they were all reviewed on a timely basis. Whilst other funds update all their policies on an annual basis, Warwickshire’s Pension’s approach has been to schedule the reviews over a period to make it more manageable. There were proposals in development to initiate member self-service with the I-Connect system which will automate data trafficking between employers and the fund.

Liz Firmstone (Service Manager (Transformation) informed the Committee that by the end of March 2021, phase three of the I-Connect project would be completed so 58% (108 of 186) of employers and 12,800 people will be on I-Connect; this will include all of the payrolls that the County Council runs both for its staff and on behalf of other organisations. The fourth phase was due to start at the end of June 2021. The Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner and the district and borough councils were yet to be put on the system.

Councillor Dirveiks suggested moving the general enquiry details to page two from page 5 so it would appear before the policy itself and that all acronyms should be explained. The Chair concurred with these points and Chris Norton agreed to make these changes.

Resolved:

The Staff and Pensions Committee are asked to review and approve the updated Communications Policy.