Your pension with East Sussex County Council is dealt with by Serco Solutions. Serco are contracted by us to provide day-to-day administration of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
From Monday 16 November to Monday 14 December 2009, we asked you about the service that the Pensions Team at Serco provides.
Who took part
Active members
We asked for the views of anyone who is a current active member of our pension scheme, especially if you've had any reason to contact Serco.
Maybe you recently joined the Council and the pension scheme, or have decided to leave the scheme. Maybe you're approaching retirement, or you just asked about your pension benefits.
We wanted to find out how satisfied you are with Serco's service and your experience of any communication you may have had with them about the Local Government Pension Scheme.
We also sent a separate survey to the pension contacts at employers who are part of this pension scheme.
Deferred members and pensioners
We didn't send this survey to deferred members or pensioners, as they can only be reliably contacted by post.
It was felt that the low rate of response to paper-based surveys would mean we wouldn't receive enough data for detailed analysis of results, or justify the cost of posting a large number of survey forms.
Background information
The East Sussex Local Government Pension Scheme provides retirement benefits for Council employees and other local government staff. Members include employees from:
- East Sussex County Council
- Brighton & Hove City Council
- the five borough and district councils
- universities and colleges
- public authorities.
For more information about the scheme, see our section Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
How you took part
People who receive this pension service gave their views by completing our online survey on the County Council website.
This survey was advertised to staff within the County Council with a news story on our intranet and featured in the pensions and consultation sections of our website. We also asked other employers to advertise the survey on their own intranets or by emailing their staff.
What you told us
We received 121 responses to the online survey, with just over half (53.72%) of the responses from County Council staff. Employees at Eastbourne Borough Council, Sussex Downs College, Wealden District Council, Wave Leisure, and Sussex Housing & Care also gave their views.
Most responses came from people aged 45 to 54, which is younger than in previous surveys. This may be because the Scheme's minimum retirement age increased from 50 to 55 in April 2010.
You told us:
- a large majority (93.39%) of you are satisfied with the service received from Serco, an improvement from 88.17% in the previous year
- within the County Council, staff in the Chief Executive's Department and Corporate Resources Directorate were 100% satisfied with the service, but Children's Services staff are less happy than before at 80%
- the service provided by Serco is administered consistently, independent of which employer or department the respondent works for
- fewer people contacted Serco by phone (36.97%) or in writing (36.44%), probably a result of an increase in using email
- the percentage of people who received a response to their written communication within five working days
- a large proportion responded that they did not understand the information held in their annual benefit statements.
What happened as a result of this consultation
Despite the disappointingly low response, we received some good feedback about what customers think of the Serco's performance which we can use to improve the service.
We will:
- consider ways to improve customers' perception of the service
- continue to review and consider the communications and guidance accompanying the annual benefit statements
- monitor the time it takes to respond to correspondence, according to targets in the pensions service contract
- review and discuss with employer contacts the pensions guidance on our website
- consider ways of improving the communication about the survey and the response rate.
Actions taken
Improving the service
Your feedback and other service improvements have been added to our Pensions Service Improvement Plan.
This will help us monitor the service that is being provided and ensure that it meets your needs as members of the Scheme and employees of the Council.
Serco staff
Serco have been given the task of developing and enhancing the skills of every pensions administrator. This will highlight the expected levels of expertise and assist in staff training requirements.
Changing the pensions survey
We will talk to our stakeholders about changing the frequency of the survey to every two years.
We will also take measures to improve the response rate including:
- ask our communications team for advice on cost effective ways to increase the number of people completing the survey
- give other employers more time to prepare communications with their staff
- ask other employers for more information about how they advertise the survey with members, and suggest improvements to ensure it is communicated consistently across the Scheme.
Enquiries
Questions about this survey
For more information about the survey, please contact our Pensions Section:
Phone: 01273 335309
Email: pensions@eastsussex.gov.uk
Questions about your pension
If you have any pension-related queries, please contact Serco Solutions:
Phone: 01825 744544
Email: escc.pensions@serco.com
East Sussex County Council