CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 3 10^th Decem­ber 2021

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

FOR DECISION

Title: COR­POR­ATE PLAN 2023 TO 2027 DEVEL­OP­MENT TIMETABLE

Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­ON, DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SERVICES

Pur­pose

This paper presents a pro­posed timetable for the devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms NPA’s next Cor­por­ate Plan, span­ning April 2023 to end of March 2027.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Board is asked to:

a) Agree the timetable for the devel­op­ment of the 2023 to 2027 Cor­por­ate Plan as set out in Annex 1. b) Agree the trans­ition­al arrange­ments for cor­por­ate plan­ning over ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ as set out in this paper.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 3 10^th Decem­ber 2021

COR­POR­ATE PLAN 2023 TO 2027 DEVEL­OP­MENT TIMETABLE

Stra­tegic Context

1. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s cur­rent Cor­por­ate Plan spans a peri­od com­ing to a con­clu­sion on 31 March 2022. It is now timely to begin con­sid­er­a­tion of the timetable for devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms NPA’s next Cor­por­ate Plan.

2. Our Cor­por­ate Plan sets out the Authority’s key stra­tegic object­ives and estab­lishes the role of the Author­ity in two key strands of activ­ity: our coordin­a­tion and con­tri­bu­tion to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP); and our con­tri­bu­tion to the Scot­tish Government’s nation­al Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment and asso­ci­ated Nation­al Out­come and Nation­al Per­form­ance Framework.

3. Our cur­rent expect­a­tion is that the NPPP for 2022 to 2027 will be approved by Scot­tish Min­is­ters at some point over quarter I of ²⁰²²⁄₂₃. Once the NPPP has been fully agreed, the Author­ity can turn atten­tion to final­ising the stra­tegic out­comes for which we as an organ­isa­tion shall be respons­ible and con­struct our next Cor­por­ate Plan around those stra­tegic objectives.

4. The Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment budget for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ is expec­ted to be pub­lished in Decem­ber 2021, along with inform­a­tion link­ing that budget to the deliv­ery of the Pro­gramme for Gov­ern­ment, nation­al out­comes and link­ages to the Nation­al Per­form­ance Frame­work. Some time will be required to eval­u­ate the stra­tegic implic­a­tions of the nation­al budget frame­work and pro­gramme for gov­ern­ment and the stra­tegic fit of the Cairngorms NPA with that nation­al pos­i­tion over the remain­ing life of the cur­rent Parliament.

Stra­tegic Policy Considerations

1. In light of the above stra­tegic con­text, seni­or management’s expect­a­tion is that the approach to the Cairngorms NPA’s cor­por­ate plan­ning for the future peri­od will be to: a) Estab­lish a single year cor­por­ate plan for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃, tak­ing those actions with­in the cur­rent cor­por­ate plan which are assessed as retain­ing valid­ity for at least a fur­ther year and adding new one-year pri­or­it­ies to them to fit with the cur­rent nation­al stra­tegic policy envir­on­ment and emer­ging NPPP; and b) Devel­op a four year Cor­por­ate Plan span­ning the final four years of the next NPPP, span­ning I April 2023 to 31 March 2027 over the course of ²⁰²²⁄₂₃.

2. While seen as a neces­sary step in sup­port­ing the devel­op­ment of a Cor­por­ate plan which will tie the Authority’s work effect­ively into the NPPP and wider gov­ern­ment strategy, a single year trans­ition­al cor­por­ate plan for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ will also be an effect­ive plan­ning basis for the Cairngorms NPA’s first full year of trans­ition out of COV­ID 19 restric­tions. This trans­ition­al plan will allow time to be taken in con­sid­er­ing the longer term organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and deliv­ery changes which we will trans­ition into new, per­man­ent work­ing sys­tems and procedures.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 3 10^th Decem­ber 2021

1. The Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­gramme Devel­op­ment Phase will also form a key ele­ment of the Authority’s stra­tegic and oper­a­tion­al plan­ning for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃, with the final deliv­ery phase plans to be sub­mit­ted to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) by June 2023. Much of our work across our Her­it­age Hori­zons pro­jects will link with the dir­ec­tion of the NPPP pri­or­it­ies. With the Her­it­age Hori­zons devel­op­ment pro­gramme an exist­ing pro­gramme approved by the Board, this will also nat­ur­ally form a key part of our trans­ition­al cor­por­ate pro­gramme for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ and a key ele­ment of our future Cor­por­ate Plan from I April 2023.

Stra­tegic Risk Management

1. The Nation­al Park Author­ity is respons­ible for lead­ing vari­ous part­ner­ships and stake­hold­er groups with interests and respons­ib­il­it­ies for deliv­er­ing ser­vices with­in the Cairngorms, to ensure pri­or­it­ies estab­lished in the approved NPPP are achieved and that vari­ous stake­hold­ers each make their expec­ted contributions.

2. This approach to our organ­isa­tion­al Cor­por­ate Plan­ning provides man­age­ment space and time to ensure these key activ­it­ies are imple­men­ted for the new NPPP from 2022, while provid­ing an appro­pri­ate plan­ning basis for the deliv­ery of the Authority’s key object­ives over the course of ²⁰²²⁄₂₃.

3. A more detailed timetable for our pro­posed Cor­por­ate Plan devel­op­ment is set out in Annex I to this paper.

Dav­id Camer­on davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

2 Novem­ber 2021

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 3 Annex I 10^th Decem­ber 2021

Annex 1: Pro­posed Cor­por­ate Plan Devel­op­ment Timetable

Timeline	Action	Linkages/​Dependencies
2021⁄22 Q3	Receive nation­al budget and nation­al stra­tegic doc­u­ments; Com­mence eval­u­ation of Cairngorms NPA fin­an­cial pos­i­tion and stra­tegic link­ages to Pro­gramme for Government	Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment budget pub­lic­a­tion timetable
2021⁄22 Q4	Final 2018 to 2022 Cor­por­ate Plan deliv­ery update to Board.	Estab­lish out­comes which remain open and or val­id for con­tinu­ation into 2022⁄23, with key ref­er­ence into emer­ging NPPP for 2022 to 2027 and nation­al strategy.
2021⁄22 Q4	Final­isa­tion of NPPP span­ning 2022 to 2027
2021⁄22 Q4	Devel­op Cairngorms NPA budget pro­pos­als for 2022⁄23 with stra­tegic out­comes and Key Per­form­ance Indicators	March 2022 Board
2022⁄23 QI	Seek Min­is­teri­al agree­ment to NPPP
2022⁄23 QI	Devel­op key Cor­por­ate Plan themes and pri­or­it­ies 2023 to 2027	June 2022 Board
2022⁄23 Q2	Val­id­ate key cor­por­ate plan themes against approved NPPP and any fur­ther national/​ministerial direction.	Requires approved NPPP to be in place
2022⁄23 Q2	Devel­op cor­por­ate per­form­ance frame­work: stra­tegic out­comes and suc­cess meas­ures includ­ing key per­form­ance indicators
2022⁄23 Q2	Detailed draft of Cor­por­ate Plan 2023 to 2027	Septem­ber 2022 Board
2022⁄23 Q3	Devel­op stra­tegic risk register based on agreed draft cor­por­ate plan	Depend­ent on Board views in Septem­ber 2022
2022⁄23 Q3	Com­plete risk appet­ite and gov­ernance assur­ance map­ping work on basis of near final draft Cor­por­ate Plan	Depend­ent on Board views in Septem­ber 2022
2022⁄23 Q3	Final­ise Cor­por­ate Plan 2023 to 2027. Includes four year fin­an­cial fore­casts to be val­id­ated against emer­ging 2023⁄24 and sub­sequent year nation­al budget positions.	Decem­ber 2022 Board. Capa­city to val­id­ate fin­an­cial fore­casts depend­ent on Board dates and pub­lic­a­tion sched­ule for 2023⁄24 Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment budget.
2022⁄23 Q4	Min­is­teri­al sign off
2022⁄23 Q4	First year cor­por­ate plan budget	March 2023 Board