Hymans Robertson is today launching its 2022 national assessment gauging levels of knowledge and understanding in the LGPS. The leading pensions and financial services consultancy’s National Knowledge Assessment follows the success of its 2018’s National Confidence Assessment, and 2020 National Knowledge Assessment and provides LGPS funds with a clear insight into the knowledge levels of their key decision-makers on a national basis.

Invaluable evidence and information will be provided to all participating LGPS funds taking part in the exercise and the findings will form part of a National Report for the LGPS. The analysis provided by the assessment will benchmark each participant Fund in an anonymous basis. Results in 2020 highlighted that areas, such as pension administration, are less familiar to committee and board members and more training was required.

The assessment follows recommendations made by the Scheme Advisory Board that LGPS Pension Committee and Pension Board members should evidence their understanding and capability, as part of the Good Governance Review.

Andrew McKerns, Senior Governance and Administration Consultant explains why this is the perfect time for funds to get involved:

“Over the years, against a backdrop of change for the pension industry, there has been a broadening of the topics that Pension Committee and Board members have had to address, with increased pressure on funds to evidence their understanding and knowledge. Since our last assessment, it is encouraging to see many LGPS funds have taken a proactive stance with their training plans, and we want to see this continue.

“Our 2022 NKA, however, is the first post-pandemic national assessment to take place in the LGPS and we’d love to see as many LGPS stakeholders as possible take part in the assessment and share their individual experiences. The pandemic has driven fundamental changes in the LGPS, not least in new ways of working and the growth of online tools, but also more focussed and shorter training session with increased effectiveness. We hope the assessment will show that these developments during this exceptional time have had a positive impact on overall training and development.

“The findings from the assessments can help provide a clearer picture on the levels of public sector understanding – and highlight gaps. This information can help to evolve how we work within our governance structures to deliver the best standards for the scheme, and funds, going forward.”