The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has published a guide for employers participating in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), as well as a resource that explains the scheme’s regulation system.

The association says that, due to public sector reforms that led to the outsourcing of local authority services, LGPS employers’ understanding of how the scheme works has become disjointed.

In 2022, a PLSA report recommended that funds should proactively provide information and assistance to employers and communicate the benefits of staying within the LGPS.

The association says that its employer guide seeks to address these recommendations and improve employers’ understanding of the scheme.

The guide contains chapters about engaging with administering authorities, how to manage data, as well as practical information about actuarial valuations, risk management, internal dispute resolution procedures (IDRPs) and automatic enrolment.

The PLSA has also created a ‘regulatory map’ to help LGPS employers and external stakeholders understand the sector’s complex regulation system.

Tiffany Tsang, head of DB, Investment and the LGPS at the PLSA, said: ‘LGPS is well funded and one of the largest pension provisions of its type in the world. The guide we are publishing today will help LGPS employers establish best practice and to better understand the value their employees get from being a member.

‘The regulatory map is designed to help external stakeholders understand the complexity of the overlapping bodies that have influence in the LGPS universe, and hopefully start a conversation on how entities could work together in a more joined up way.’

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