Outsourcing the Teachers’ Pension Scheme to Capita in 1996 saved the Exchequer over £20m during our first seven-year contract. So it’s perhaps not surprising that we won a second contract after a competitive tender in 2003 to run the service for a further seven years.
New contact centre
Before we began running the Teachers’ Pension Scheme for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, member queries were answered in weeks rather than days. Files could easily be misplaced, leading to low productivity.
Improvements in productivity
We set up a single contact centre for all customer queries, and added email and online communications channels. While almost halving the staffing requirement from 450 to 250, we generated enough new business to redeploy 98% of potentially redundant employees to other pensions contracts. We actively encourage staff to pursue professional qualifications, and ISO and IiP accreditation have contributed to a staff retention rate of 97% and average service levels of 98%. Having cut operating costs by 48% from some £17m to under £9m a year, we’re currently working to generate further savings.