About the appointment

Introduction

The Pension Board is responsible for assisting the Secretary of State for Defence, as Scheme Manager, in ensuring compliance with the scheme regulations and other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the scheme and any statutory pension scheme that is connected with it.

Appointment description

The new NED Member of the Armed Forces Pension Board will be responsible for bringing their wider Pension experience to bear in support of MOD further developing public service pension scheme governance for the Armed Forces Pension Schemes (AFPS). They will be expected to enhance the Board’s ability to provide robust, independent challenge to the scheme manager and delivery partners. This is essential given the scale, complexity, and sensitivity of current pension activity including remedy delivery, transformation and litigation related risks. The additional NED would have a particular focus on training and education ensuring regulatory compliance in this area.

Key responsibilities include:

• Providing pension expertise to the Board in respect of administrative services and the wider pensions landscape, giving guidance and advice facilitating the Board’s understanding of current issues, future challenges/changes and training and education of Board members.
• Providing an objective view of the standards and solutions that could be expected from service providers, taking into account and, where necessary, challenging the view of the service providers.
• Enabling the Board to make informed decisions by providing relevant information on pensions including examples of practice in the wider pensions market.
• Providing guidance and advice to assist the Board in understanding risks to the scheme and mitigating against them.

Organisation description

All pension schemes are required by law to have a Scheme Advisory Board and a Pension Board.

The Armed Forces Pension Board is managed to ensure its members have a broad balance of skills and experience to enable it to undertake its key role of assisting the Scheme Manager (Secretary of State for Defence) in ensuring compliance with the scheme regulations and other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the scheme and any statutory pension scheme connected with it.

Board composition

The Pension Board is chaired by an independent, voting Non-Executive Director (NED) who has responsibility for assisting the Scheme Manager to comply with the scheme regulations and other legislation relating to the governance and administration of the scheme and requirements imposed by the Pension Regulator. The Pension Board has an equal number of employer and employee members who collectively represent the interests of all of the Schemes’ beneficiaries and stakeholders. There are currently 12 members (including the Chair) and four attendees in an advisory capacity. This recruitment campaign is being run to add a new voting NED Board Member, increasing the membership to 13.

Person specification

Essential criteria

The successful candidate will need to be able to demonstrate the following essential criteria:

• Experience: A proven record of working in a Pensions delivery or governance environment at a strategic level, with a particular focus on training and education ensuring regulatory compliance in this area.
• Knowledge: A high level of technical (pension specific) knowledge, particularly in relation to defined benefit schemes, as well as familiarity with pension law, legislation and regulations, an in-depth understanding of the pensions industry and working with third-party administrators.
• Communication: Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to listen, accept challenge and constructively challenge others in discussions with clarity and respect, whilst holding high standards of corporate and personal conduct.
• Judgement: Sharp and clear thinking with the ability to critically analyse a wide range of information and make clear, effective and objective evidence-based recommendations to support the delivery of Board objectives.
• Collaboration: Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to influence key stakeholders, and an ability and willingness to work closely with Board members to reach consensus through active debate and logical argument.