Admission bodies

Overview

Admission bodies are non-public sector bodies that provide public services, usually:

• private companies providing pubic services on behalf of a local authority or other public body
• charities who are considered to have a ‘community of interest’ with a scheme employer. This means that the work done by the charity contributes to the aims and objectives of a public sector scheme employer. For example, a charity providing preventative services that stop children from entering the care system. Or a charity that provides services previously provided by a scheme employer.
• other bodies listed in part 3 of schedule 2 of the LGPS regulations and approved by the secretary of state.

Admission agreement

The admission body must enter into an admission agreement before it can offer the LGPS to its employees. The admission agreement is a formal agreement between an admission body, the administering authority and in the case of contractors, the scheme employee for which they are providing services. It sets out:

• the terms of your participation in the Fund
• your responsibilities and those of the administering authority (and where applicable the scheme employer)
• how pension risk will be managed
• what will happen when the admission comes to an end
• a list of employees eligible for membership of the LGPS under the agreement and
• other matters dealing with your participation in the Fund.

Where current LGPS members are transferring from another employer in the Fund to the admission body, the agreement will need to be in place before the transfer to make sure that membership is continuous. If this doesn’t happen, there’s a risk that employees won’t be covered by protective pension benefits like ill health retirement or death in service, if something happens to them before the agreement is in place.

Get in touch

You must get in touch with us as soon as possible if you think you may need an admission agreement. If a scheme employer is thinking about outsourcing services involving a transfer of staff, you should contact us at the tender stage. This is so we can make you aware of all the information you need to include in your invitation to tender. This makes sure that the pension costs and arrangements can be priced into the contract and avoids any surprises that might cause issues late in the process.

Find out more

You can find out more about:

• joining the Fund
• how your contribution plan will be worked out and
• other policies about participating in the Fund

in our employer policies on our key documents pages.

You should pay particular attention to our:

• Funding strategy statement
• Admitted bodies, scheme employers and bulk transfers policy
• Administration strategy.