LGPS National Knowledge Assessment - National Report 2024

We're excited to share the results of our 2024 National Knowledge Assessment (NKA), our third assessment following those in 2020 and 2022.

The NKA provides a platform for LGPS funds to assess the knowledge levels of their Committee and Board members, benchmarked against other participating LGPS funds and gives insight into the current gaps in knowledge.

This year’s assessment, our largest to date with 22 LGPS funds and over 250 members participating, comes amid increasing complexities in LGPS administration, evolving investment requirements and increased scrutiny of governance arrangements.

The NKA ensures decisions are taken by those with the right skills, that scrutiny is effective and service delivery to our members and employers remains in a strong position. 

Our key findings

• Governance knowledge has increased – The areas of Pensions Governance and the Committee Role and Pensions Legislation were the two highest scoring sections. An encouraging result given the importance placed on governance and decision making in the Pensions Regulator’s General Code of Practice released in 2024, and the continued focus on good governance within the LGPS.
• Knowledge levels are up – across the eight topics of the NKA, there has been an increase in knowledge levels in five of those topics since 2022. The overall average score has also increased.
• Board outscored the Committee in all areas - The scores for Pension Board members were greater on average than those for the Committee for each of the eight areas covered in the NKA. This is consistent with previous assessments and possibly reflects the statutory requirement for Board members to have sufficient knowledge and skills to perform their role.
• Engagement has fallen since 2022 – engagement is measured as a proportion of the number of assessment completions against the number of Committee and Board members who had access to the assessment. Overall engagement for the 2024 assessment was 60% compared with 73% in the 2022 assessment.
• Experience matters – when looking at the service of participants, the scores increased with the length of service completed in the member’s role.

Next steps for LGPS funds

• Use the results to identify weaker areas of knowledge and formulate a detailed, tailored training plan, utilising a variety of training delivery methods such as bitesize pre-meeting training 
  sessions, online learning to provide flexible support and training newsletters compressing key information for both groups.
• Engage with Committee and Board members to ascertain their preferred training delivery methods, and equally as important, to identify what they feel doesn’t work.
• Ensure that these plans are monitored and tracked. All Committee and Pension Board training should be recorded and reported on regularly.
• Plan for future assessments to ensure that their training strategy is working effectively, and factor in any adjustments to reflect any changes in circumstances at the fund, or within the wider LGPS landscape.

Download the full report

We hope you find our report insightful, if you have any questions or would like to discuss the findings further, please get in touch.