220812ResourcesCtteePaper3AAAnnual ReportV10

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 12TH August 2022

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY RESOURCES COMMITTEE

FOR DECISION

Title: RESOURCES COM­MIT­TEE ANNU­AL REPORT TO BOARD

Pre­pared by: DAV­ID CAMER­SON, DIR­ECT­OR OF COR­POR­ATE SER­VICES AND DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Pur­pose This paper presents the draft Resources Com­mit­tee Report to Board for the peri­od August 2021 to August 2022.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Resources Com­mit­tee is asked to review the draft Annu­al Report to the Board and agree any amend­ments pri­or to sub­mis­sion to the board in September.

Activ­ity in Period

1. The Resources Com­mit­tee was estab­lished fol­low­ing a review of the Cairngorms NPA’s board com­mit­tee struc­tures over the first quarter of ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂. The Com­mit­tee com­bined may of the respons­ib­il­it­ies of the pre­vi­ous Fin­ance and Deliv­ery and Staff­ing and Recruit­ment Committees.
2. The Com­mit­tee met for the first time in August 2021 and has met a total of five times up to and includ­ing the meet­ing of 12 August 2022.
3. The Com­mit­tee has sought assur­ance over the fol­low­ing key aspects of the Cairngorms NPA’s oper­a­tions over the course of the report­ing peri­od: a. Staff pay award effect­ive from I April 2022; b. Devel­op­ment of ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ budget; c. Budget mon­it­or­ing for both ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂ and ²⁰²²⁄₂₃; d. Draft fin­an­cial out­turn pos­i­tion for ²⁰²¹⁄₂₂; e. Deliv­er­ing the Cairngorms NPA’s Equal­ity Duties; f. Staff engage­ment, includ­ing the res­ults of the staff sur­vey and Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um dis­cus­sions; g. Evol­u­tion of staff terms and con­di­tions, par­tic­u­larly around the devel­op­ment of 35 hour work­ing week pro­pos­als; h. The Right to Dis­con­nect Charter; i. Health and Safety operations;

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 12TH August 2022

1. The Com­mit­tee also ini­ti­ated con­sid­er­a­tion of the poten­tial for devel­op­ing com­mer­cial income and the committee’s future con­sid­er­a­tion of this aspect of the Authority’s activ­ity toward the end of this report­ing peri­od. The Com­mit­tee will take this aspect of work for­ward in future years.

Review of Activ­it­ies and Commentary

1. The Com­mit­tee, as a new aspect of the Cairngorms NPA assur­ance pro­cesses, has worked over the year to under­stand its remit and its role in the con­text of oth­er com­mit­tees and gov­ernance struc­tures and evolve appro­pri­ate report­ing struc­tures and points of focus. Over­all, the com­mit­tee feels it has been suc­cess­ful in this work. Appro­pri­ate areas of over­lap with oth­er com­mit­tees on per­form­ance and risk man­age­ment have been recog­nised and minimised.

2. The Com­mit­tee had a con­sist­ent mem­ber­ship over the course of the year with excel­lent attend­ance and engage­ment by mem­bers in mat­ters covered.

3. The Com­mit­tee has not iden­ti­fied any changes required to its terms of ref­er­ence over the course of this report­ing period.

4. There have been no instances of need for escal­a­tion of con­cerns to the full board, while some minor mat­ters have been made known to oth­er com­mit­tees to enhance coordin­ated assur­ance over organ­isa­tion­al performance.

5. The ini­tial schedul­ing of four com­mit­tees on the same day has been chal­len­ging for tim­ing of meet­ings; keep­ing meet­ings to time while allow­ing full and valu­able dis­cus­sions to take place; and on officer sup­port time. The change to hold­ing per­form­ance com­mit­tee meet­ings as part of a sched­ule of three com­mit­tees is wel­comed and will be mon­itored for effectiveness.

Con­clu­sions

1. The oper­a­tion of the Resources Com­mit­tee has provided an import­ant and effect­ive ele­ment of assur­ance to the Cairngorms NPA’s gov­ernance and assur­ance systems.

2. Mem­bers believe the com­bin­a­tion of the remits of two com­mit­tees into a single com­mit­tee scru­tin­ising the key areas of fin­an­cial and staff resources, in addi­tion to some over­sight of wider resources work in the deploy­ment of offices and oth­er facil­it­ies, has giv­en an enhanced level of assur­ance over these key areas. The Committee’s view there­fore after the first year of oper­a­tion is that the Com­mit­tee should be retained as an ele­ment of the Cairngorms NPA’s gov­ernance and assur­ance frame­work under its cur­rent remit.

3. The Com­mit­tee believes there are no sig­ni­fic­ant changes needed in the Committee’s oper­a­tions over the com­ing year. Com­mit­tee mem­bers will con­tin­ue to work with seni­or officers to evolve and adapt report­ing struc­tures as required.

4. The Com­mit­tee is grate­ful to the sup­port of officers provided over the year, for full and clear papers and effect­ive, help­ful engage­ment at our meetings.

CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 12TH August 2022

Dav­id Camer­on 22 July 2022 davidcameron@​cairngorms.​co.​uk