30 July 2025

Kent Police Pension Board

Introduction and apologies

Attendees

Apologies

1. Conflict of interest

No conflicts of interest declared.

2. Previous minutes

Previous minutes approved.

3. Actions and updates

Full updates provided on Action Log.

4. Pension and Governance Manager

Emma Lewis, along with colleagues in Occupational Health, HR, Accounts and PIU have been progressing cases in the absence of Kevin Kirby. Some new processes are being established as part of this work. Chief Inspector Dan McHugh will imminently be assisting with the administration and governance of the pensions, pending the recruitment of a Develop You police staff secondment potentially for six months. Part of the responsibility of the secondment post is to stabilise the process and suggest improvements and future processes. Options to be considered to permanently fill the Pensions and Governance Manager post include:

• option 1 - a like-for-like replacement for Kevin Kirby
• option 2 - two staff at a lower grade to Kevin Kirby’s role
• option 3 - assistance from XPS with the role in the future.

5. Scheme Manager appointments

Nothing to report.

6. Breaches of law procedure

No new material breaches.

7. XPS SLA performance

• Scheme and legislative
  
  In the last quarter, SLAs have increased to 96% with performance continuing to improve. There has also been a decline in enquiries and cases. TC recognised that some of the lower performing percentages relate to death calculations, retirement quotes and payments, all of which need to be prioritised however, upon investigation, these are due to the cases not being closed on time rather than any delay to benefits being paid.
  
  TC introduced their new system called Auroura. XPS current use a system called Altair which is provided by a third-party provider called Heywood. However, XPS have developed their own software system called Aurora to allow them autonomy over their own administration to improve agility and responsiveness. None of the costs of the new software has been passed onto the members. Aurora first connected in June 2023 with 40,000 members being administered using this system. There have been ongoing Scheme Manager training sessions, and these will continue to be run. The system has enhanced online accessibility and will encourage clients to undertake more self-service. NM queried whether the pensions could be examined online, especially for those with breaks in service in a more user-friendly way. TC confirmed that the information should be more accurately portrayed.
  
  TC highlighted the Member Connect service performance and take up, which has grown into a large team dealing with numerous phone calls and emails. The use of AI will be introduced to streamline the service further and speed up response times, particularly with the verification process.
  
  The Board decided to keep actions 01/25 and 02/25 as ongoing actions due to the new systems being introduced.

• McLeod
  As of the 30 June, Active ABS RSS Issuance stood at 99.87% for Kent with two cases outstanding which have now been issued, leading to 100% success.
  
  Deferred RSS Issuance currently stands at nine cases, despite which Kent Police force has one of the highest percentages of issuance due to the quality of the data available. There will be one final run on the deferred cases this year which will be actioned in the next few weeks.
  
  Work on the Immediate Choice (IC) RSS is ongoing with the manual cases being investigated, which naturally takes longer than the automated cases. Those members who are financially affected are to be completed first in August, before moving on to the underpin cases then the non-financially affected cases and finally the PSO cases, which are subject to guidance from Government Actuary Department (GAD). Financially affected members across all forces will be dealt with before the other categories are dealt with.
  
  JC queried the timeline for this, as this was supposed to be completed in June. TC confirmed that their tracking had been unsuccessful as the manual cases have slowed down the process, which is why they have broken the process down into the different categories. It is hoped that a more definitive timeline will become evident during August, except for the PSOs due to the pending guidance. JC reinforced the need for a definite timeline that can be fed back to officers.
  
  Action 03/25 - Toby Clark/ XPS to provide a definite timeline for RSS cases to be resolved.
  
  DP queried the accuracy of the data presented after being contacted by two members in the last 24 hours. TC confirmed that there are still cases of officers with prior public sector service being discovered. HR queried whether data issues with other forces will further delay the Kent cases from being dealt with. TC confirmed that this could be a potential issue.

• BAU Performance
  
  The next round of statements is due to be issued on the 25 August, with a draft communication to be issued at the beginning of August to inform active members of XPS’s activity and associated timelines. JC asked whether there was anything that we need to do internally prior to the new issue, especially from a comms point of view. It was felt that there could be some comms issued to retired officers to help with disseminating information, particularly around making sure that they are registered online and using the FAQs before contacting XPS. HR confirmed that there will be a MS form available to streamline the process.
  
  DP said that legacy members would like to see the ABS focus on age 55, particularly those exiting the organisation at age 55. TC confirmed that the ABS focus for this year will remain at 60 as per last year, but this could be considered for the future.
  
  Action 04/25 – Jonathan Castle and Hayle Ryder to work with XPS to investigate whether the ABS focus could include options at age 55 in the future.

8. Remedy

No comments.

9.Public Services Pension Act 2013 section 249B Internal Controls Framework

JC presented the risk in the administration paper, looking at the various ratings. Things to note were:

A6 Retrospective Remedy (Amber Rating) - TC confirmed that Kent Police had supplied all the necessary data for the 50 officers and that this was being dealt with as a separate workstream to the ICRSS by XPS.

A9 REG 36/37 CARE (Red Rating) - There is currently a discriminatory position in respect of some officers paying reduced rate contributions compared to other officers paying full rate contributions. Although there are no live cases, there is a proposal that the delegated Scheme Manager will invite those paying a reduced rate to apply through Reg 37. The delegated Scheme Manager is currently waiting on NPCC guidance on this matter. Any cases that should emerge will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. DP supported this position.

All risks on the governance paper were green.

10. Pension dashboard

A readiness report demonstrated that 89% will be able to access data, 9% may be able to access data and 2% will not be able to access the data. If half of the 9% will eventually be able to access the data, this makes it about 93% which will be able access the dashboard. Work is ongoing to on-board those not able to access their data. A comms exercise has been undertaken to ask everyone to check their data. Pensions dashboards are available for active or deferred members but not for pensioners. The Integrated Service Provider is called Fusion which was one of the first schemes to connect. This means that testing is still taking place so police officers may be asked to contribute to testing the system. Kent Police’s connection date is October 2025.

Action 05/25 – JC to contact TC who will pass it on to the relevant team to confirm the matching policy.

11. Any other business

No AOB.

Date of next meeting

2 October 2025 10am to 12 midday.