Purpose of the post
•To be responsible for all aspects of managing the LGPS within the administering authority, and to be a visible, accountable leader.
•The role will provide responsibility for the day-to-day management of the administering authority across all pension functions, including (but not limited to) investments, administration, funding, governance and communications.
•Ensuring that the people of Gwynedd are central to everything we do.
•To support the Head of Department in working with the Council's Management Team, other heads of department, elected members and external partnerships to ensure that the Council provides the highest quality services within the resources available to the residents of Gwynedd, and to ensure that that service reflects the Council's corporate policies and strategies.
•Representing the Head of Department at meetings and events within the Council and in external forums as well as being an active member of the corporate Assistant Heads Forum.
•Promote suitable performance management arrangements that exhibit clear results, so that areas for improvement and barriers can be identified and barriers to be overcome and encourage continuous improvement within the services that are directly overviewed.
•To ensure tangible results in making the best use of the Council's resources, providing the best possible service to the customer, which aligns with the Council's priorities and responds directly to local needs.
•Be a Member of the departmental Management Team undertaking senior responsibility and overview of some of the Department's services.
•Undertake specific overview functions within the Department in the areas of:
- Information Protection
- Health, Safety and Wellbeing
- Engagement
- Handling Complaints
- Equality
- Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults
• - Emergency Plans
 
Responsibility for functions
•Be responsible for the administration of all aspects of the Gwynedd Pension Fund
 
Main duties
Provision of Services
•Encourage and support Service Managers and their teams to ensure the provision of high quality services to meet customer needs, within the resources available
•Collaborate with other services and agencies to ensure an integrated approach to service delivery
•Developing operational policies
•Taking practical part in implementing strategic change
Leadership
As one of the Department's leaders and a member of the Senior Managers Group:
•Leading, promoting and developing staff
•Leading a transformation agenda
•Developing and promoting the culture of the organisation
•Collaborating with internal and external partners
•Promoting a culture of continuous improvement
Planning and Review
•Taking a leading role in business planning and review
•Facilitate internal change and service review/development
•Reviewing and challenging the performance of services within the Department
Corporate Programme
•Transition between strategic and operational policies
•Promoting the culture of one Council
•Contributing to strategic development
•Agree and deliver on manageable programme milestones
•Promote and implement corporate policies and priorities e.g. horizontal themes convey a sense of working together to a single objective
KEY COMPETENCIES
(in addition to the Council's remaining corporate competencies)
Working within the political dimension
•create effective connections/enable working appropriately across political boundaries
•maintain effective relationships with elected members, the region and the Government
Leading on change and development of the organisation
•act consistently with the Council's fundamental values in developing the culture
•working with uncertainty, ambiguity and the inevitable nature of change
•develop an appropriate use of power and power empowering staff and Managers to make decisions they could defend
•contribute and take joint ownership of the development of the Department and the Council.
Maintain a personal perspective and self-knowledge
•be willing to listen to and value the perspectives of others recognising their contribution to the improvement and change agenda
•maintain a belief or belief in oneself
•developing personal resilience, sustainability and emotional awareness
•keep a sense of humour
Developing and enabling effective partnerships and external relationships
•being a champion of the local authority, local government and local democracy
•co-ordinating effective public and private partnerships for strategic development and service delivery
•working with communities and other agencies
•collaborate internally within the Council, regionally and nationally
•use the press and media effectively to obtain an appropriate profile
Keeping track of strategic and long-term issues
•looking to the future creating awareness of potential situations
•developing, maintaining and promoting a strategic vision/view for the organisation and the local area
•be aware of the organization's strategic capability
Leadership and Performance Management
•supporting a culture focused on performing well, innovating and serving our customers
•recognising and resolving situations of underperformance
•continuous improvement across all service areas
Leading and Managing People
•Motivate and encourage teams and individuals
•Offer direction and feedback
•Creating an atmosphere of respect
•Effectively transmitting vision to teams and individuals
•Effective delegation of work
•Recognise and understand other responses to specific situations whilst focusing on service delivery
•Ensuring a safe environment for team members to develop by taking risks
•Recognising and understanding the potential harm done when conflicts are not promptly addressed
Communication
•Sharing and listening to information, opinions and ideas
•Communicate effectively verbally and in writing
•Understand that good communication can be a powerful tool to increase motivation
•Choosing and using appropriate means of communication and media for a range of audiences
•Possess effective interpersonal communication skills
•Understanding the dangers of working from assumptions
•Appreciate the feelings of others and understand the importance of inclusion and consultation
•Be able to communicate effectively in Welsh and English.
Self-management
•Proactive
•Accept responsibility for actions
•Providing stability in times of change
•Possess high levels of self-awareness
•Show honesty
•Emotionally resilient and aware
•Prioritise tasks and make effective use of time
•Proving public value
MAIN AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY
The following gives an outline of the main duties and responsibilities involved in this post. It is not a detailed description, and the duties of the job may vary from time to time, although that would not change the basic characteristics of the job or the overall extent of the responsibility involved.
•To act as the statutory Senior Local Government Pension Scheme Officer for the Gwynedd Pension Fund in accordance with Regulation 53A of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013.
•Planning and monitoring to ensure quality service and continuous improvement. Delivering value for money through the procurement, prioritisation, management and monitoring of the effective use of resources recognising that knowledge, ability and skills are also resources.
•Making things happen by making meaningful decisions and responding effectively to priorities as they change.
•Understand and work effectively within the Council's political framework and be aware of the issues that impact on service delivery at different levels. Build relationships with others to benefit from best practice in order to improve provision for service users.
Overall responsibility for ensuring that LGPS functions are well resourced and deliver effectively
•Ensuring that there is sufficient resource and budget allocated to deliver the LGPS service over each year.
•Ensuring that the LGPS functions deliver good value for money.
•Overseeing the preparation of the fund’s budget for approval by Pension Committee.
•Drafting and publication of the annual accounts in line with statutory guidance and timelines.
•Leading the pensions function, providing clear and effective leadership.
Providing strategic leadership and representing the interests of the Fund
•Developing the Fund’s long-term investment and funding strategic direction.
•Overseeing the development of Fund policies and strategies to meet the fund’s investment and funding aims and ensure a high-quality service is delivered to members.
•Responsibility for implementation of policies and strategies set by the Pension Committee.
•Responsibility for meeting expectations for timely and accurate pension payments, including managing suppliers and holding them to account for performance.
•Representing the interests of the LGPS fund within the local authority’s senior leadership team; working with senior stakeholders and ensuring that plans, policies, and resource allocation by the local authority’s senior leadership team take into account the requirements and duties associated with the LGPS fund.
•Ensuring that the pensions function works effectively with other parts of the authority (e.g. payroll, HR, IT, legal, procurement).
•Building a direct relationship with the Independent Person, seeking to understand and consider any recommendations or concerns that may raise.
•Working with the Section 151 officer to approve the annual pension fund accounts and any other responsibilities which may fall into the remit of both positions. More broadly, building a working relationship with the Section 151 officer to ensure the delivery of the Fund’s functions.
•Coordinating responses to any government consultations which impact on the LGPS and the Fund’s ability to deliver across its functions.
Overall responsibility for compliance with scheme regulations and relevant legislation
•Ensuring that fund policies and strategies are prepared in accordance with legislation and guidance.
•Responsibility for administration of the scheme and ensuring compliance with scheme regulations, statutory guidance, other relevant legislation and The Pensions Regulator’s General Code.
•Identifying and managing risks to the administering authority with a strong culture of risk management.
•Supporting the effective governance of the administering authority and appropriate implementation of the governance strategy in accordance with guidance.
•Ensuring that the administering authority carries out the Independent Governance Review as required by Regulation 117 of the Local Government Pension Scheme Regulations 2013 and develops an action plan in response to any recommendations or findings.
•Ensuring that the triennial valuation is carried out and concluded within statutory timeframes.
•Overseeing internal and external audit and ensuring any subsequent recommendations are implemented.
•Responsibility for ensuring that reporting deadlines are met (for example, Annual Scheme Return submission to TPR and Event Reports to HMRC.)
•Overall responsibility for the fund’s member communication strategy
Setting training strategy and ensuring knowledge and understanding requirements are met
•Ensuring that training and knowledge requirements are sufficiently understood and kept under consideration by all relevant parties.
•Ensuring that training needs analysis for the Committee and Board is undertaken to identify gaps and imbalances. Responsibility for any subsequent recommendations to be implemented.
•Setting the Fund’s training strategy, ensuring this is suitable for purpose, that the strategy is effectively implemented and reviewed as required.
Engagement with the Pension Committee and other key stakeholders
•Ensuring that the pension committee has access to adequate professional advice on all areas, including actuarial, governance, legal and procurement advice.
•Ensuring that the local pension board is adequately resourced in terms of members and budget to carry out its role effectively. This may include ensuring that meetings are quorate, occur at the frequency as agreed in the terms of reference, and that the Board is suitably structured.
•As required, participating in the governance structures of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP) as client representative and ensuring Fund views are reflected.
•To support the Pension Committee in ensuring that the fund’s investment strategy is realised effectively by the WPP.
•Working with advisers and agreeing performance targets. Monitoring performance against the agreed targets and escalating concerns where performance issues are identified.
•Overseeing employer engagement, working with the relevant parties to monitor and escalate any issues as required.
General
•Ensure that the principles of corporate policies permeate the service.
•Assist the Head of Finance in the preparation of the Departmental Business Plan including appropriate input in relation to the Units for which the post is responsible.
•Leading, developing, evaluating and encouraging officers to work to their full potential by setting suitable objectives for them and measuring achievement against recent trends (through the appropriate management).
•Ensure that suitable and effective performance management systems are in place for the units and that the purposes and measures in the business plans are achieved and that regular monitoring takes place.
•Where necessary, assist the Corporate Support Department in developing suitable policies and targets to ensure appropriate development for the service.
•Ensure that the principles of corporate policies permeate the service.
•Supporting the Head of Finance to develop and implement arrangements to promote effective customer care within the Units
•Undertake any other corresponding and reasonable duties, commensurate with the salary level and level of responsibility of the post, and given from time to time by the Head of Finance.
•Responsibility for self-development
•Ensure compliance with Health and Safety at work rules in accordance with the responsibilities set out in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Council's Health and Safety Policy.
•To act within the Council's policies in relation to equal opportunities and equality.
•Responsibility for managing information in accordance with the Council's information management standards and guidelines. Ensuring that personal information is handled in compliance with Data Protection legislation
•A commitment to reduce the Council's carbon emissions in line with the Carbon Management Plan and to encourage others to take positive action towards reducing the Council's carbon footprint.
•Undertake any other corresponding and reasonable duty that is consistent with the salary level and level of responsibility of the job.
•Responsibility to report concern or suspicion that a child or vulnerable adult is being abused
 
Special circumstances
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