Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Form­al Board Paper | Annex | 12/03/2021

Eval­u­ation of the Cairngorms LEAD­ER Pro­gramme 2014 – 2020

Sum­mary

Intro­duc­tion

This Exec­ut­ive Sum­mary presents the main find­ings of an inde­pend­ent eval­u­ation of the Cairngorms LEAD­ER Pro­gramme 2014 – 2020. The eval­u­ation was com­mis­sioned by the Cairngorms Trust, the man­aging agent of the pro­gramme, and was under­taken between Octo­ber 2020 and Janu­ary 2021 by EKOS Ltd. The research involved a review of rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion and data, along­side con­sulta­tion and sur­vey work with stake­hold­ers and pro­jects fun­ded through the programme.

Pro­gramme Devel­op­ment and Delivery

LEAD­ER is the European Union’s place-based, par­ti­cip­at­ory and bot­tom-up approach to rur­al devel­op­ment. In Scot­land there are 21 Loc­al Action Groups (LAGs), which sup­port deliv­ery of area-based Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategies (LDS).

Through this, each LAG provides fund­ing for pro­jects that address its key object­ives and priorities.

Each LAG and LEAD­ER pro­gramme is over­seen by an Account­able Body. Since 2002, the Account­able Body for Cairngorms LEAD­ER has been the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority.

The timeline (right) shows the main mile­stones in pro­gramme devel­op­ment and delivery.

Kin­gussie Caman­achd Club received a grant to enhance facil­it­ies at The Dell, the club’s shinty ground. The suc­cess of the pro­ject saw the club host the nation­al women’s final for shinty in 2019.

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park were sup­por­ted to pilot a volun­teer ranger programme.

Timeline	Descrip­tion
2013 – 2014	• A Work­ing Group was estab­lished to over­see devel­op­ment of a new Cairngorms Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy Con­sulta­tion events were car­ried out with com­munit­ies and stake­hold­ers from Janu­ary 2014 • A new LDS was developed with six pri­or­ity themes • A new Cairngorms LAG (CLAG) was formed in June 2014, with a staggered intake of new members
2015	• A Busi­ness Plan was drawn up by the Account­able Body, set­ting out how the pro­gramme would be delivered • The Account­able Body reached agree­ments with the CLAG and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment • Launch event held in Septem­ber, fol­lowed by pro­mo­tion­al events in six com­munit­ies • The CLAG began accept­ing expres­sions of interest and applications
2016 – 2019	• The CLAG became a registered char­ity, the Cairngorms Trust • Pro­ject deliv­ery phase • The ini­tial dead­line for Eols/​applications was in late 2018 • Final pro­ject approvals were made by the CLAG in Septem­ber 2019
2020	• Most pro­jects had com­pleted their activ­ity by the end of 2020 (84%) • An eval­u­ation was under­taken • The pro­gramme was exten­ded into 2021, as a res­ult of Covid-19

LDS Pro­gramme Performance

The CLAG and sup­port­ing staff team con­sidered applic­a­tions for pro­ject fund­ing over two stages, apprais­ing them against set cri­ter­ia and the pri­or­ity themes of the LDS. The graph­ic below shows an over­view of the pro­jects awar­ded and their con­tri­bu­tion to the LDS.

Met­ric	Value
Expres­sions of Interest	119
Pro­jects at the 2nd stage of applications	55
Pro­jects	37
Pro­ject Completion	Most pro­jects had com­pleted by the end of 2020 (84%), with a few still to fin­ish in early 2021 (16%)

Break­down of approved projects:

By LDS pri­or­ity:	Per­cent­age	By deliv­ery organ­isa­tion:	Per­cent­age
1. Devel­op com­munity capacity	45%	Third Sec­tor	46%
2. Grow the eco­nomy, busi­ness and employment	64%	Private Sec­tor	35%
3. Attract and retain young people	22%	Pub­lic Sector	19%
4. Trans­port, con­nectiv­ity & ser­vice provision	25%
5. Land­scape, wild­life, & loc­al heritage	43%
6. Tour­ism & recreation	60%

Fund­ing	Value
LEAD­ER grants:	£2,467,300
Total match funding:	£1,278,500
Aver­age pro­ject size	£101k
Total pro­ject costs:	£3,745,800
Aver­age award:	£66.7k
Smal­lest award:	£3,200
Largest award:	£222,300

Impact of Pro­ject Funding

Impact	Per­cent­age	Met­ric
Access to Training	83%	Sup­por­ted people to access train­ing and devel­op­ment oppor­tun­it­ies – for nearly 1,600 individuals
Vis­it­or Satisfaction	63%	Led to a high­er level of vis­it­or satisfaction
High­er Num­ber of Visits	58%	Fun­ded organ­iz­a­tions repor­ted a high­er num­ber of vis­it­ors – around 32,000 visits
Volun­teer­ing	71%	Pro­jects recruited and worked with volun­teers – around 600 people
Wildlife/​Heritage	71%	Involved people par­ti­cip­at­ing in a wild­life, envir­on­ment or her­it­age ini­ti­at­ive or event — nearly 2,800 people
Cre­ation of New Employment	63%	Sup­por­ted the cre­ation of new employ­ment in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park
New Rela­tion­ships	75%	Fun­ded organ­iz­a­tions developed new rela­tion­ships or part­ner­ships through their LEAD­ER project
Improved Skills	63%	Fun­ded organ­iz­a­tions improved their pro­ject plan­ning skills and experience

There were high levels of added value asso­ci­ated with the pro­ject fund­ing from Cairngorms LEAD­ER. Nearly two thirds (65%) said that their pro­ject would not have gone ahead at all without the grant sup­port. Of the remainder, all (35%) said the pro­ject would have been smal­ler, been delivered later or had less impact without the grant support.

Source: EKOS primary research with 24 fun­ded pro­jects (2020)

Con­clu­sions

Imple­ment­a­tion and Engage­ment: the early stages of the pro­gramme were cru­cial in determ­in­ing its over­all suc­cess. The con­fid­ence and skills that came from pre­vi­ous pro­gramme deliv­ery, and les­sons learned from this, sup­por­ted a focused and prompt start. Broad engage­ment took place dur­ing the devel­op­ment pro­cess for the new Loc­al Devel­op­ment Strategy, with a strong level of input from across the Nation­al Park area. Pro­ject ideas were gathered from early on, and LEAD­ER staff met with nearly all pro­jects at the Expres­sion of Interest stage. The two stage applic­a­tion pro­cess was treated as such, avoid­ing time and effort (from both applic­ants and staff) being wasted on pro­jects that were unlikely to proceed.

LDS Object­ives:

LDS per­form­ance has been meas­ured on the basis of 21 indic­at­ors, each feed­ing into one of 14 out­comes and, in turn, six stra­tegic object­ives. Pro­jects were asked to estim­ate their own con­tri­bu­tion to the indic­at­ors, against which per­form­ance has then been mon­itored. As of mid-Janu­ary 2020, 12 indic­at­ors had been met or exceeded, and a fur­ther five were at 75% or more of the ori­gin­al tar­get. Pro­jects have been closely mon­itored, with impacts repor­ted on the basis of veri­fi­able evidence.

Con­tri­bu­tion to Nation­al Objectives:

evid­ence from the primary research has shown that all pro­jects con­trib­uted to at least one of the nation­al object­ives, set by the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. In par­tic­u­lar, all pro­jects estim­ated at least some con­tri­bu­tion towards achiev­ing part­ner­ship work­ing and cooper­a­tion. They have also provided detailed examples of their con­tri­bu­tion to each of the objectives.

The LEAD­ER Approach:

the Cairngorms LDS was developed on the basis of strong grass­roots input, achiev­ing a high level of ini­tial engage­ment. The CLAG brought togeth­er a mixed and bal­anced mem­ber­ship from across the Nation­al Park area, with a clear sense of pur­pose. Over­all, the key aims and aspir­a­tions of the ​‘LEAD­ER approach’ to com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment have been achieved.

Two Dec­ades of Cairngorms LEADER:

Hav­ing now over­seen three pro­grammes over almost two dec­ades, it is clear that con­sid­er­able skills, expert­ise and exper­i­ence have been built up in the CLAG, with a strong part­ner­ship between the group and the CNPA. There has been con­tinu­ity between pro­grammes, but also import­ant les­sons learned that has influ­enced the approach to loc­al devel­op­ment. The ongo­ing work of the Cairngorms Trust will be import­ant in con­tinu­ing and build­ing on this legacy.

A Third Sec­tor LAG:

the CLAG became a registered char­ity (a SCIO) in 2016. The new set-up has allowed the CLAG to diver­si­fy its approach to com­munity-led loc­al devel­op­ment, run­ning a small grants scheme and fun­drais­ing cam­paigns. This rep­res­ents a more stra­tegic and adapt­able approach and, in par­tic­u­lar, will help con­tin­ue its leg­acy post-Brexit. Work­ing towards char­it­able object­ives has also helped cre­ate addi­tion­al com­munity and social benefits.

Les­sons Learned:

the early start to LDS devel­op­ment max­im­ised the time that would later be avail­able to devel­op and sup­port pro­ject applic­a­tions. The help provided by Pro­ject Devel­op­ment Officers was appre­ci­ated by applic­ants. There are, how­ever, still issues with the com­plex­ity of the pro­ject applic­a­tion and admin­is­tra­tion pro­cess, although this is far from a loc­al prob­lem. Des­pite these con­cerns, our primary research found that every grant recip­i­ent iden­ti­fied at least one bene­fit for them as an organ­isa­tion from tak­ing part in LEAD­ER, such as devel­op­ing or strength­en­ing rela­tion­ships and part­ner­ships or increas­ing their under­stand­ing of their community.

The Future of Rur­al Funding:

the exact nature of the pro­posed replace­ment for LEAD­ER, the Shared Prosper­ity Fund, is still to be determ­ined. Non­ethe­less, there is likely to be a role for loc­al organisations/​delivery bod­ies, and the Cairngorms Trust is well placed to cap­it­al­ise on this. Cer­tainly, there remains a strong case for deliv­ery of such a fund at Nation­al Park level, com­ple­ment­ing wider devel­op­ment activ­ity in the area and respond­ing to needs and demands that are well under­stood by loc­ally based staff and CLAG mem­ber­ship. In the imme­di­ate term, recov­ery from Cov­id-19 is the key pri­or­ity. More long term, there is a need to focus on cli­mate change and sus­tain­ab­il­ity, com­munity resi­li­ence, and oppor­tun­it­ies for young people.