2006/07 was the second year of the Business Plan that was adopted in February 2005. During the year the Trustees reviewed the Business Plan and progress to date. They concluded the broad strategy and philosophy remained valid and that, going forward, the key activities were to raise our profile and grow our activities.
Our activity levels remained high. We delivered the post graduate programme and underwent a fully satisfactory review of the MSc by the University of Surrey. The Chartered Insurance Institute recognised the benefit the MSc qualification would bring to their members and the CII are to promote the programme as a natural development path for their members who have achieved chartered status. We also continued our work gaining accreditation at NVQ Level 3 for the Introduction to Life Planning Programme, and we are pleased that accreditation has been gained with Open Colleges Network.
From the beginning of 2007 our pre-retirement course activity increased significantly. The number of "in-house" courses grew and we reached agreement to deliver to the pension holders of Friends Provident and The Pensions Trust and now to clients of Kerr Henderson Hewitt. There is little doubt that our profile and reputation has increased and this is leading to more invitations to work with organisations. I was particularly pleased that Standard Life asked to use our intellectual property for their courses for their pension holders.
Our project work, though the two Pension Education Fund successes, the HMRC taxation project, the Leonardo da Vinci project and our financial education work, expanded and in 2006/07 became our largest single activity.
I was also pleased that we were invited to contribute our knowledge and understanding through membership of the Department of Work and Pensions Opportunity Age Strategy Partnership Group (Employment) and the HM Revenue and Customs Older People Research Project Stakeholder Group and a group on financial education at ifs Pro Share.
Financially it proved to be a challenging year. Employers were reluctant to take initiatives in the first half of the year in the light of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations that came into force in October 2006 and for the pensions community the focus was on the Pension Commission Reports, "A" day, the Government White Paper and the Pensions Bill. It was disappointing that the Welsh Assembly Government were unable to fund the Potentia project and had to withdraw from the contract. We also faced changes to the funding from the then Department for Education and Skills. All this impacted on our income and Accounts. We were able to weather these financial headwinds because of our broader range of activities and the long term funding arrangements that had been put in place.
Stuart Royston
Chief Executive
