Tag: Merseyside Pension Fund

Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Wirral Council) 26th March 2013 Part 1 Spending Freeze, Overspends and Bad Debts

A report on the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting (Wirral Council) of the 26th March 2013

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The agenda and reports for this meeting can be found on Wirral Council’s website and this blog post includes video of the meeting.

penguin with whipThe Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting, after a short discussion about filming he asked for any declarations of interest or party whip. No declarations of interest or party whip were made. The minutes of the meetings held on the 14th February 2013 and on the 30th January were agreed.

icicle Peter Timmins introduced the month 10 report on the overspend. He started by saying that they’d added £1 million to the budget of Adult Social Services, increasing the original overspend from £17 million to £18 million, however due to the spending freeze the overspend was down to just over £7 million, but that the month eleven report was just about to go to the Chief Officer’s Group which would add a further £200,000 reduction to the overspend.

Part 3 (page 9) of the report detailed the risks of overspends in adult and children’s social care and how they were in talks with Cheshire West and Chester Council about shared services. He felt they could do more on procurement to generate savings and clamp down on “rogue purchasing”.

sheep Cllr Gilchrist asked when the report on bad debts would be reported? Peter Timmins said it was going to a Special Cabinet meeting on the April 18th and that it had led to some interesting discoveries about the Pension Fund. He said they were looking at the processes involved.

Cllr Gilchrist asked about the changes in month ten compared to month nine. Peter Timmins said he would give Cllr Gilchrist the budget book which showed three years budgets which he hoped to have ready by the middle of April as it was now in draft form. They had also done a budget training session for councillors and planned to do more of these and were also training officers in budget management with aids to budget management put on their website. He described sending officers to budget management training courses using the metaphor of sending sheep to be dipped.

Pension Committee (Wirral Council) 20th November 2012 Part 3

Part 3 of the report on the Pension Committee’s (Wirral Council) meeting of the 20th November 2012 which manages the Merseyside Pension Fund.

Continued from Pension Committee (Wirral Council) 20th November 2012 Part 2.

The next item on the agenda was the gifts and hospitality policy, Peter Wallach spent five minutes summarising the report. At the end the Chair asked if there were any questions. Nobody asked any questions and the recommendations were agreed.

The next report was an update on work on the Cunard Building. Cllr Hornby wanted a working party set up and for the committee to agree to a working party being created. Cllr Harry Smith said he would second it if Cllr Hornby added if needed. Cllr Adrian Jones said it was sensible and he would go along with it. Cllr Harry Smith said he would support a working party if needed. Cllr Hornby said that he was trying to save time and not wait till next year. Cllr Harry Smith said he wouldn’t name the officer, but the unnamed officer had said that they would make a decision, he said he was not happy with officers making decisions before councillors. The Chair asked for a vote. All voted in favour of a working party.

Peter Wallach said a report was expected at the end of the month, the next committee meeting was in January so there would be a working party by Christmas.

The next report was on the LGC Investment Conference. The officer said it was in the supplementary papers as it had a title similar to a previous agenda item which had been incorrectly duplicated. The investment conference in Chester was seen as an important element of their training and costs would be met from the training budget.

Cllr Harry Smith said he had discussed this at the briefing, he said this training opportunity should be open to members of the Pension Committee. The Chair agreed that training was important. There was a vote and it was agreed that people would be sent at a cost of £425 + VAT (which included a nights accommodation in Cheshire) + travel.

The application from Mellors Catering Services Ltd which had been agreed under delegated decision-making by officers was agreed.

The Chair asked if there were any objections to the Investment Working Party minutes. No objections were made. The press and public were excluded from the rest of the meeting.

Pension Committee (Wirral Council) 20th November 2012 Part 2

Pension Committee (Wirral Council) 20th November 2012 Part 2

So, after the vote to ban filming at the Pension Committee what happened next?

Well first a list of who was there (apologies for not including councillors from other Merseyside councils I don’t know the names of)

Pensions Committee
Cllr Patricia Glasman, Chair
Cllr Geoffrey Watt
Cllr Mike Hornby
Cllr Adam Sykes
Cllr Tom Harney
Cllr Adrian Jones
Cllr Sylvia Hodrien
Cllr Harry Smith
Cllr Ann McLachlan
Cllr George Davies
Phil Goodwin (trade union representative)

Wirral Council Officers
Colin Hughes
Peter Timmins
Pat Philips
+ others from the Merseyside Pension Fund

A declaration of interest was made as the person was a member of the Merseyside Pension Fund.

The minutes were agreed.

An officer gave a brief summary of a LGPS Update report which included the Merseyside Pension Fund response to the Department of Communities and Local Government on the impacts of the Public Service Pension Bill on the Merseyside Pension Fund.

No questions were asked, the report was noted and the letter was noted.

An officer then asked for approval for the Statement of Investment Principles which was an appendix to a report which they said “do not constitute a change in investment strategy”.

The Chair asked how long it would take? The answer given by the officer was that they intended to sign it by the end of November.

Cllr Harry Smith said that he understood the reason some documents were hyperlinked and that he had “calmed down now”.

Cllr Watt commented on the links, Phil Goodwin commented on the same issue and the Chair said it would be revisited next year. The recommendation was agreed.

Yvonne Caddock introduced the report on Annual Allowance Tax Charge and Scheme Pays Process, which related to how much a person can pay into the pension scheme each year without incurring a tax charge.

A councillor asked about the numbers of how many were likely to be affected?
Yvonne answered that they had got it down to about ninety members in the Fund, who they would have to issue pension statements for but that there may be seven or eight members that exceeded the new limit which would lead to a tax charge.

Cllr Geoffrey Watt made a comment. The recommendations were agreed.

Peter Wallach said they’d been shortlisted for the LGC Investment Awards 2012 and asked if the Pension Committee wanted to be represented at the awards ceremony and if so how many?

The Chair asked for comments. Cllr Harry Smith suggested three councillors, one from Labour, one from the Conservatives and one from the Lib Dems.

The Chair suggested that they add the Head of the Fund too. Cllr Geoffrey Watt asked which category they had been shortlisted in? The answer given was large pension fund of the year. They all voted in favour of sending three councillors and the head of the Fund to the awards ceremony at The Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, London in December.

 

Pension Committee (Wirral Council) 18th September 2012 Agenda Item 14D Altair Implementation Update

Pension Committee 18th September 2012 Wirral Council 14D Altair Implementation Update Page 1 of 4

Pension Committee 18th September 2012 Wirral Council 14D Altair Implementation Update Page 2 of 4

Pension Committee 18th September 2012 Wirral Council 14D Altair Implementation Update Page 3 of 4

Pension Committee 18th September 2012 Wirral Council 14D Altair Implementation Update Page 4 of 4

Frequently Asked Questions, 1) Cllr Watt, 2) Colas Ltd, 3) Merseyside Pension Fund Job Evaluation 4) Cllr Gerry Ellis

Answers to readers questions:-

Q1. Councillor Geoffrey Watt is from what council?

A1. Councillor Geoffrey Watt is from the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

Q2. Who is the Colas representative on Wirral Council?

A2. There isn’t a Colas Limited representative on Wirral Council as Colas Limited and Wirral Council are separate organisations.

However, Steve Grimes is the Contracts Manager for Colas Ltd.

On Wirral Council, there are a number of people with responsibility for the Colas contract, some of whom are listed below.

Brian Smith, Highway Management/(0151) 606 2426/briansmith@wirral.gov.uk .

Cabinet Member (Streetscene and Transport) Cllr. Harry Smith.
Cabinet Member (Corporate Resources) Cllr. Adrian Jones

The Deputy Director of Technical Services is Mark Smith and there are others apart from the four people named above with varying responsibilities.

Q3. Merseyside Pension Fund job evaluation?

Merseyside Pension Fund is administered by the Administering Authority. The Administering Authority is the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral.

The current round of job evaluations (Stages 3 & 4) was agreed at the Cabinet meeting of 13/10/2011. This also involves a new pay and grading structure for all posts above spinal column point 34.

Stage One (up to SCP 34) and Stage Two (Schools) are not covered by this answer.

This is because Stage 2 does not apply to the Merseyside Pension Fund AFAIK, Stage 1 is already complete (except for appeals) at the time of asking the question.

Stage Three covers SCP 35 to 70 (£29,174 to £61,000) and Band H employees. This is contracted to the HAY Group with support from the Council’s in-house team.

Stage Four (Heads of Service and above) of the Job Evaluations is now contracted by the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral to the HAY Group. The Hay Group is supported by the Job Evaluation Team.

For further information contact either Wirral Council: Chris Hyams, Head of HR and OD, Department of Law HR and Asset Management Telephone: (0151 691 8590) Email: chrishyams@wirral.gov.uk or the HAY Group.

Disclosure of interest: The author of this piece has a close family member who is now in receipt of a Merseyside Pension Fund pension.

Q4. What party is the current Mayor of Wirral Cllr. Gerry Ellis from?

A4. Cllr Gerry Ellis is from the Conservative Party.