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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper | 12^th August 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY PER­FORM­ANCE COMMITTEE

FOR INFORM­A­TION

Title: HER­IT­AGE HORI­ZONS PRO­GRAMME UPDATE Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CLYNE, HEAD OF HER­IT­AGE HORI­ZONS PROGRAMME

Pur­pose This paper presents the Q2 2022 deliv­ery update on the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme and the planned devel­op­ment work to end Septem­ber 2022.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee is asked to review the deliv­ery updates presen­ted with this paper and consider:

a) wheth­er the pro­grammes of activ­ity are mak­ing the expec­ted con­tri­bu­tion to the Cairngorms NPA’s agreed stra­tegic outcomes;

b) wheth­er the deliv­ery updates sug­gest any stra­tegic­ally sig­ni­fic­ant impacts on the Cairngorms NPA’s agreed per­form­ance objectives;

c) wheth­er any mater­i­al impacts on the Cairngorms NPA’s stra­tegic risk man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures arise from assess­ment of pro­gramme delivery.

Per­form­ance Dash­board: Pro­gramme level | Per­form­ance Meas­ure | Rat­ing | Com­ment­ary | | — -| — -| — -| | Pro­gramme risk pro­file | Green | Pro­gramme being delivered with­in risk tol­er­ances | | Fin­ance: impact on Cairngorms NPA budget man­age­ment | Green | No wider unplanned demands cur­rently made by pro­gramme on fin­an­cial resources. | | Future fund­ing pro­file | Green | Second round fund­ing applic­a­tion struc­ture approved by NLHF. | | Pro­cure­ment | Green | Tenders awar­ded and con­sult­ants in place | | Staff­ing | Amber | Research and Know­ledge Exchange Officer has taken one year career break. Pro­gramme wide impact on deliv­ery. Post has been re-advert­ised and mit­ig­a­tion plan in place. | | Pro­ject exe­cu­tion and NLHF second phase applic­a­tion times­cales | Amber | Times­cale to meet NLHF second round applic­a­tion dead­line is tight. New theme lead struc­ture now in place to man­age risk. | | Deliv­ery of Sus­trans fun­ded pro­jects | Amber | Align­ing NLHF times­cales to meet Sus­trans ​‘Places for Every­one’ design stages and uncon­firmed fund­ing com­mit­tee meet­ing schedule. |

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper | 12^th August 2022

Stra­tegic Background

1. CNPA was suc­cess­ful in its bid to the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF): Her­it­age Horizons.

2. The CNPA Cairngorms 2030: People and Nature Thriv­ing Togeth­er Pro­gramme was awar­ded £1.7 mil­lion from NLHF to com­plete the devel­op­ment phase from 7^th July 2021 – 7^th July 2023. The total devel­op­ment phase budget is £3.8 million.

3. The devel­op­ment phase con­sists of a pro­gramme of works to engage, empower, and inspire res­id­ents, busi­nesses, and vis­it­ors to tackle the joint cli­mate, nature, and pub­lic health emer­gen­cies. It will add detail to the stage I NLHF pro­ject pro­pos­als, provide more accur­ate costs and devel­op the know­ledge exchange programme.

4. The devel­op­ment phase will focus on deliv­er­ing action research type activ­it­ies so that evid­ence-based plans can be cre­ated for the 5‑year deliv­ery phase.

5. A stage 2 NLHF fund­ing applic­a­tion will be sub­mit­ted by end June 2023.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Deliv­ery Against Stra­tegic Expectations

Staff­ing

1. The Research and Know­ledge Exchange Officer, Mike Woolv­in, has taken a one-year career break from 1^st July 2022. The post was imme­di­ately advert­ised extern­ally, and inter­views are sched­uled for 1^st August 2022.

2. The Green Health Ranger, Louise Emslie, will be tak­ing mater­nity leave from|st Septem­ber 2022. This post will be backfilled.

3. The one-year fixed term Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment Officer Post has been filled. Kasia Ladds starts on 18^th July 2022.

Research and Know­ledge Exchange

1. The Research and Know­ledge Exchange plan has been amended fol­low­ing the career break of the lead officer and the sub­mis­sion of only two unsat­is­fact­ory bids for con­sultancy work.

2. CNPA will replace the full-time staff­ing post but has decided to can­cel the extern­al con­sultancy work in favour of devel­op­ing a research fel­low­ship with Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Food and Agri­cul­ture Research Insti­tu­tion (SEFARI).

3. This part­ner­ship will also release 50% match fund­ing (£18k+) from SEFARI.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper | 12^th August 2022

1. Con­sultancy awards since March 2022 a) || tenders awar­ded b) 5 tenders live on PCS

2. Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (SEA) and Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­als (HRAs) a) The require­ment to under­take SEA/HRA assess­ment was sched­uled at the pro­gramme plan­ning place. The scop­ing and screen­ing stages have now been com­pleted. b) In accord­ance with Sec­tion 8 (1) of the Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment (Scot­land) Act 2005 CNPA has form­ally determ­ined, in con­sulta­tion with His­tor­ic Envir­on­ment Scot­land, Scot­tish Envir­on­ment Pro­tec­tion Agency (SEPA) and NatureScot, that imple­ment­a­tion of 10 of the 23 Cairngorms 2030 pro­jects are likely to lead to sig­ni­fic­ant envir­on­ment­al effects, and there­fore envir­on­ment­al assess­ments will be pre­pared for those plans.

Pro­jects in SEA/HRA scope

• Ic Demen­tia Activ­ity Resource Centre
• 5b Peat­land restoration
• 5c Cli­mate resi­li­ent catchments
• 6a Ebikes
• 6b Glen­more Trans­port Plan
• 6c Act­ive Com­munit­ies Badenoch and Strathspey
• 6^d Sus­tain­able Trans­port in Deeside
• 6^e Sus­tain­able Trans­port in High­land Perthshire
• 6f Act­ive Aviemore
• 6g Cairngorms Act­ive Travel Plan

c) CNPA com­pleted the SEA screen­ing and scop­ing stages and will appoint an exper­i­enced envir­on­ment­al con­sult­ant to pre­pare the full Stra­tegic Envir­on­ment­al Assess­ment report. d) The appoin­ted con­sult­ant will also be required to carry out Hab­it­ats Reg­u­la­tions Apprais­als (HRAs) in accord­ance with the Con­ser­va­tion (Nat­ur­al Hab­it­ats &c.) Reg­u­la­tions 1994, using the HRAs to inform the SEA and vice versa.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions and engagement

1. Con­sult­ant com­mu­nic­a­tion error a) Unfor­tu­nately, sev­er­al adverts were placed in loc­al press (Bal­later and Strath­spey) by CNPA con­sult­ants in early July 2022 pro­mot­ing events on the future of pub­lic con­sulta­tion in the Park. The con­sult­ants failed to fol­low agreed con­sulta­tion and approv­al pro­tocol, which meant CNPA pro­ject staff were unaware of the activ­ity. The events were sub­sequently can­celled and will be re-launched at a later date.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper | 12^th August 2022

b) Pro­ject man­agers have now reminded deliv­ery part­ners and extern­al con­sult­ants that the CNPA com­mu­nic­a­tions team must approve all press releasees, web­site con­tent and con­sulta­tion plans pri­or to launch. This will help us coordin­ate deliv­ery, ensure we com­ply with NLHF com­mu­nic­a­tion guidelines and provide SMT/​Board with warn­ing of con­sulta­tion events being held in the Park.

1. Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress has been made by the CNPA Com­mu­nic­a­tions team over the last quarter with the pro­duc­tion of the fol­low­ing pro­mo­tion­al mater­i­al. a) Over­arch­ing intro­duc­tion to the pro­gramme — avail­able in Google Slide and Power­point ver­sions, this present­a­tion takes people through the over­arch­ing nar­rat­ive of the pro­ject, includ­ing details of all 24 pro­jects, an intro video, how we will track our pro­gress etc.

   b) A new promo video explain­ing the pro­gramme — fea­tur­ing 16-year-old loc­al res­id­ent Cailean Mck­er­ron, this video illus­trates the vari­ous strands of Cairngorms 2030 and explains how it will impact the every­day lives of people who live, vis­it and work in the Park.

   c) A new ​‘homepage’ for Her­it­age Hori­zons on our web­site a more detailed snap­shot of all 24 pro­jects, plus a news feed and key doc­u­ments asso­ci­ated with the pro­gramme. The short descrip­tions con­tained on this page have also been shared with team mem­bers to stand­ard­ise the way we speak about the wider pro­gramme and indi­vidu­al pro­jects with­in it.

   d) [Her­it­age Hori­zons engage­ment timeline — 2022 – 23.pptx](Heritage Hori­zons engage­ment timeline — 2022 – 23.pptx) — a shared cal­en­dar of all our engage­ment activ­ity dur­ing the Devel­op­ment phase, ordered by month and by audi­ence engaged. This will form the basis of our new Comms & Engage­ment Officer’s work pro­gramme when they start in mid-July

   e) A draft Cairngorms 2030 Com­mon­place hub — this is still being worked on, but this micros­ite (much like the one we cre­ated for our Park Plan) will be the hub for all online con­sulta­tion activ­ity dur­ing the Devel­op­ment phase.

2. Pro­gramme Advis­ory Pan­el meet­ing was held on 11^th May 2022.

3. Pro­gramme Board meet­ing held on 25^th June 2022.

4. Team build­ing event held 5^th July 2022.

Per­form­ance Over­view: Risks Under Management

1. Mon­it­or­ing: Risk mon­it­or­ing con­tin­ues at CNPA team, theme, and seni­or man­age­ment level.

2. Gov­ernance: Pro­gramme exe­cu­tion stage ongo­ing. New theme leads in place to man­age oper­a­tion­al delivery.

3. Cash flow: No issues.

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CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper | 12^th August 2022

1. Pro­cure­ment: Pro­cure­ment pro­ceed­ing well with con­sult­ant incep­tion meet­ings underway.

2. Pro­gramme deliv­ery actions to end Septem­ber 2022 | Action | When | | — -| — -| | Act­ive Travel con­sulta­tions com­mence | August 2022 | | Appoint new Pro­gramme Man­ager (Learn­ing and Eval­u­ation) | August 2022 | | Appoint SEA/HRA con­sult­ant | August 2022 | | Com­mence pro­duc­tion of NLHF second phase applic­a­tion | August 2022 | | Advertise/​appoint SEFARI Cairngorms 2030 Fel­low­ship | August — Septem­ber 2022 | | Pro­gramme Board and Advis­ory Pan­el meet­ing – CNP site vis­it | Septem­ber 2022 | | Fort­nightly update meet­ings with NLHF con­sult­ant | On-going | | Pro­ject exe­cu­tion | On-going |

Sig­ni­fic­ant Pro­gramme Change Requests

1. None

Sig­ni­fic­ant Budget Adjustments

1. No net change in deliv­ery budget.

Con­clu­sions: Per­form­ance Over­view and Mat­ters Mer­it­ing Stra­tegic Review

1. The pro­gramme incep­tion stage is com­plete. The main risk for deliv­ery con­tin­ues to be the tight times­cales asso­ci­ated with man­aging 24 com­plex pro­jects and meet­ing the NLHF second phase fund­ing applic­a­tion dead­line (end June 2023).

2. Plan­ning to pro­duce the second phase NLHF applic­a­tion and sup­ple­ment­ary sup­port­ing doc­u­ments has com­menced with deliv­ery times­cales now in place. Mile­stone draft com­ple­tion dates at end Decem­ber 2022, March 2023, and June 2023.

Dav­id Clyne 28^th July 2022 davidclyne@​cairngorms.​co.​uk

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