TEN-2526-016(PA2023) Member Deliberative Assembly

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Description

Nest is working with Dr. Emmeline Cooper, a leading academic focused on how to apply the thinking behind deliberative democracy to the governance processes of pension schemes with fiduciary duties. We’re planning to set up and run a deliberative mini public with our pension scheme members. Our working title for this is the Nest member assembly. In summary the intention is for our assembly to deliver a deliberative dialogue process focused on Nest investment strategy. This will ultimately result in participants agreeing a series of recommendations around how Nest invests their money. These recommendations will be an input into the triennial review of Nest Statement of Investment principles, which is due to be updated in 2026. Whilst the focus of the discussions will be on how we invest money; there will likely also be valuable other insights produced during the process. The aim is to hold the assembly in January/February 2026 and publish the outcomes of the assembly by May 2026. Pre Market Engagement Summary Role of Dr. Emmeline Cooper: Nest talked with each organisation about the collaboration between Nest and Dr. Emmeline Cooper, explaining that Emmeline is seconded to work at Nest but will be drawing on her previous academic work, in particular the member dialogue conducted for a Dutch pension scheme. As set out in the RFP we made clear that this previous project would be a starting point for thinking about the design of Nest member assembly. We explained that Emmeline will be leading the process design and analysis and reporting for the project, clarifying with organisations that their role would therefore be supporting rather than leading in terms of designing the approach. Participant numbers: We talked with the organisations about our thinking in terms of participant numbers, their feedback confirming Nest thinking that c.50 -100 was an appropriate size for the assembly. Sortition: We asked questions about organisations past experience using sortition to select participants, organisations gave a range of answers with some able to do this 'in-house' others who would outsource to organisations such as the Sortition foundation. This informed Nest decision to include sortition services within the RFP but make clear that Nest would handle the first stage. Location: We also explored with organisations our ideas about where the assembly might be held - should it be multi location, or just one, should it be entirely in-person or hybrid. The feedback received contributed to Nest thinking with our final approach outlined in the RFP. Supplier interest: We discussed with organisations how interested they were in potentially bidding. Most expressed a strong interest, although some had reservations about whether they were best placed to respond. In drafting the RFP Nest has tried to ensure it remains as attractive as possible to a broad range of different potential suppliers.

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