Trustee Good Practice Guide
Working in partnership and transparently
It is vital that all parties involved with taking a scheme through assessment build strong working relationships with each other. Without all parties working towards a common goal, the assessment process can be delayed unnecessarily due to poor communications and lack of co-operation.
Trustees and the PPF caseworker should be open in all that they do, particularly when dealing with other parties, to avoid misunderstandings which could lead to a breakdown in relations. They should both work closely together to ensure the scheme is managed through the assessment period as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Your caseworker will provide guidance and direction, working with the trustees as an integrated team, to ensure the scheme progresses through the various stages without any major issues. We will guide and support you as trustees during what can be a stressful time for you and your members to ensure the scheme progresses through assessment without undue delay.
Close co-operation is vital to ensure that you do not miss important deadlines so each should actively encourage good working relationships with specialist PPF teams and external organisations.
We have demonstrated our commitment to this process by producing this guidance which we developed in full consultation with the industry. We also spent a lot of time nurturing relationships with industry bodies such as the Pensions Regulator and NISPI so we share information and give out consistent industry messages.
What good practice looks like
- Lay trustees identify a potential conflict of interest and inform their caseworker, eg they are both trustee and scheme member and are unable to make an impartial decision which would mean benefits increase for a small number of members, including themselves. They take the appropriate action to seek advice about how to resolve the potential conflict and advise the PPF of the proposed course of action.
- The trustees avoided a potentially difficult issue by seeking appropriate advice allowing them to take a timely and objective decision.
What bad practice looks like
- Trustees fail to hold progress meetings for four months despite requests from the PPF caseworker. In the absence of such meetings, advisors start to work on their own timescales, lacking co-ordination with each other. This results in the scheme actuary not knowing about the anticipated due date for an important piece of work.