CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

Form­al Board Paper 8 Annex | 9^th Septem­ber 2022

MINUTES OF THE GOV­ERNANCE COM­MIT­TEE MEET­ING of

THE CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHORITY

held via Lifes­ize on 2^nd June 2022 at 1pm

PRESENT

• Xan­der McDade (Board Convener)
• Car­o­lyn Cad­dick (Board Deputy Convener)
• Judith Webb (Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee Chair)
• Gaen­er Rodger (Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Convener)
• Deirdre Fal­con­er (Resources Com­mit­tee Chair)

In Attend­ance:

• Grant Moir, CEO
• Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services
• Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Development
• Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Communications
• Alix Hark­ness, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies:

• Wil­li­am Mun­ro (Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Chair)

Wel­come and Apologies

1. Car­o­lyn Cad­dick wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Gov­ernance Committee.

Declar­a­tions of Interest

1. There were no interests declared.

Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022, held via video con­fer­en­cing were approved with no amendments.

2. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meeting:

   • a) At Para 12i) In Hand– an online ques­tion­naire identi­fy­ing gaps in know­ledge to be cre­ated for Board Mem­bers to com­plete ahead of fur­ther training.
   • b) At Para 12ii) Open – com­plaints pro­ced­ure and its pro­cess to be incor­por­ated into the train­ing ses­sion in June 2022.
   • c) At Para 17i) In Hand– Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions to look into using Spey­so­und Radio to pro­mote events in the Nation­al Park.
   • d) At Para 22i) Closed – Board Code of Con­duct cir­cu­lated to Dav­id Robertson of Wild Thinking.
   • e) At Para 26i) Open – Board mem­bers rep­res­ent­a­tion on external/​intern­al groups to be sought.
   • f) At Para 26ii) Closed – Board sched­ule updated and cir­cu­lated to the Board.
   • g) Con­fid­en­tial Minute At Para 5i) Closed– Clerk to the Board ensured that going for­ward sub­sequent Com­mit­tee meet­ings are not held in the same Lifes­ize room as the last, to mit­ig­ate from delay­ing the start time of Committees.

3. Action Point Arising: None.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions Update (Paper I)

1. Olly Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions, presen­ted an update of cur­rent com­mu­nic­a­tions activ­ity, plus out­lined a num­ber of key pri­or­it­ies for the next quarter. The Cairngorms 2030 Her­it­age Horizon’s video was high­lighted in par­tic­u­lar as one of the key items delivered over the last peri­od: https://​www​.you​tube​.com/​p​l​a​y​l​i​s​t​?​l​i​s​t​=​P​L​q​P​t​A​l​i​k​i​i​X​f​K​X​X​b​j​h​F​8​3​U​h​8​K​z​A​X​ppima

2. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   • a) Ques­tion around the news­let­ter idea, would it be digit­al or in paper format or both? Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions advised that it would be in paper format and that the com­mon­place plat­form would be used to roll out feed­back digit­ally. Face­book (FB), Ins­tagram (IG) and web­site would also be used.
   • b) Ques­tion around if we already do FB and IG how will this chan­nel dif­fer as a digit­al man­age­ment cam­paign? Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions advised that lots of people don’t see our chan­nel with an interest in hik­ing, going out for walks, can tar­get them even if they don’t fol­low CNPA chan­nels, chance to reach those we are not reach­ing through organ­ic activity.
   • c) Praise for the 340k social media hits on Cairngorms Nature Big Weekend.
   • d) Com­ment made that hav­ing more and dif­fer­ing loc­al people involved this will intrigue res­id­ents who then will want to know what’s going on. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions agreed that it would, though only if the char­ac­ters were of a range of back­grounds and ages. He added that the Cairngorms Voices piece would be on the front and centre of the website.
   • e) Could Board mem­bers share the link with our Part­ners who may also in turn share the links? Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions advised that Cairngorms Voices was com­mis­sioned in part­ner­ship with Vis­itScot­land, he explained that when there was more momentum behind them there would be more oppor­tun­it­ies to engage and help dis­sem­in­ate inform­a­tion and links at that point.
   • f) How would com­mon­place be used as a plat­form going for­ward? Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions advised that it would be used for the Her­it­age Hori­zons pro­ject and the act­ive travel pro­ject. There is a com­mon­place ele­ment in the e‑biking pro­ject which would have the same feel and look as the NPPP Con­sulta­tion. He explained that com­mon­place was a deliv­ery vehicle which should be ready with­in the next month and at that point would be shared with the Board.
   • g) Con­grat­u­la­tions and com­ment made that the work being done with­in the Com­mu­nic­a­tions depart­ment was look­ing fresh and dynam­ic, how could this pro­gress be shared with Mem­bers of the Board who are not on this Com­mit­tee? Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions advised that he was try­ing to pull the inform­a­tion provided to this Com­mit­tee into the quarterly CEO Report that is pre­pared for the Board, he added that fur­ther rel­ev­ant inform­a­tion would be pulled into the Board e‑bulletin which would be rolled out soon.
   • h) CEO com­men­ted that it was worth high­light­ing to Board Mem­bers the breadth of work being under­taken by the Com­mu­nic­a­tions team and that the Board e‑bulletin would help to do this.
   • i) Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions explained that Sian Jam­ieson, Digit­al Com­mu­nic­a­tions Officer, had done a massive amount of work and had decided to go freel­ance. Although the recruit­ment pro­cess had begun to fill the role, this would mean that there would be delay to some priorities.
   • j) Deputy Con­vener praised the report and acknow­ledged the vast amount of work going on and handed back to Xan­der McDade, Board Con­vener, to Chair the meeting.

3. Xan­der McDade, Board Con­vener thanked Board Deputy Con­vener. He praised the good work being done with­in the Com­mu­nic­a­tions team, the extens­ive response to the NPPP Con­sulta­tion and the impress­ive per­form­ance in deliv­er­ing the com­mu­nic­a­tions agenda. He noted Com­mu­nic­a­tions would be repor­ted to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee on a reg­u­lar basis.

4. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee noted the sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress made across a range of com­mu­nic­a­tions chan­nels in the past six months and dis­cussed the iden­ti­fied pri­or­it­ies for Q3 of 2022.

5. Action Point Arising:

   • i. Com­mu­nic­a­tions Update paper to be brought to a future meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Committee.

Board Skills Mat­rix & Board Appoint­ment Pro­cess Update (Oral)

1. Xan­der McDade, Board Con­vener provided an update on the Board Appoint­ment pro­cess. The fol­low­ing points were made:
   • a) Slowly get­ting nom­in­ees from the five loc­al Author­it­ies for their 7 nom­in­ees to Min­is­ter for approv­al, although the inform­a­tion is inform­al, and the CEO has not been form­ally noti­fied of them yet.
   • b) Response on min­is­teri­al appoint­ments awaited from the Min­is­ter, which will play heav­ily on skills mat­rix dis­cus­sion. Noted that by end of this year poten­tially up to 8 of cur­rent mem­bers may change, with up to 6 Loc­al Author­ity nom­in­ated chan­ging and pos­sibly 2 min­is­teri­al appointments.

Judith Webb arrived at the meeting.

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment provided an update on the draft board skills mat­rix which would be used to identi­fy any addi­tion­al skills needed in deliv­ery of the new NPPP. This would be seen by the Resources Com­mit­tee that after­noon, then go out to Board via sur­vey mon­key next week. The inten­tion was to leave it run­ning for 2 weeks, then to bring the ana­lyt­ics back to this Committee.

2. The Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update on the Board Skills Mat­rix and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   • a) Resources Com­mit­tee Vice-Chair advised that it should come back to the Resources Com­mit­tee for dis­cus­sion and to the Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee for information.
   • b) Sug­ges­tion made to repeat the skills mat­rix again next year when new Board mem­bers are in place. Board Con­vener con­firmed that it would be car­ried out again, this time next year.
   • k) Query around the pub­lic appoint­ments pro­cess for min­is­teri­al appointees, and wheth­er pro­posed appoint­ments may be made with indi­vidu­als not tak­ing up the role for sev­er­al months until vacan­cies arose? Noted that this may be a pos­sib­il­ity, although only likely for rel­at­ively short-term peri­ods of one or two months. Where the gap was six months or more, it is much more likely that a sep­ar­ate appoint­ments round would be undertaken.
   • l) Com­ment made that the loc­ally elec­ted mem­bers will be on board by this time next year. Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee Chair added that they would be advert­ising jointly with Loch Lomond and Trossachs Nation­al Park (LLT­NP) for pub­lic appointees and that there would be anoth­er oppor­tun­ity next year to fill in any skill gaps with more Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment appoint­ments join­ing the Board at that point.
   • m) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices added that he had had dis­cus­sions with LLT­NP and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment around pub­lic appointees. With one pub­lic appoint­ment def­in­itely com­ing to an end at the end of Janu­ary 2023, it was likely this recruit­ment would be covered in a 2022 appoint­ment round with a sep­ar­ate round of appoint­ments held in early 2023. The timeline for the 2022 appoint­ment pro­cess was becom­ing urgent to resolve approach and requirements.

3. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee noted the update.

4. Action Point Arising:

   • i. Board Skills mat­rix sur­vey mon­key ques­tion­naire to be repeated in June 2023.

Board Train­ing & Devel­op­ment Update (Oral)

1. Car­o­lyn Cad­dick, Board Deputy Con­vener presen­ted the update on Board train­ing and Devel­op­ment. She high­lighted the fol­low­ing points:

   • a) Dav­id Robertson has sent notes on, will the Deputy Con­vener review and respond to, and once agreed will cir­cu­late to the whole board.
   • b) Com­ment made that Board Mem­bers attend­ing by VC found it chal­len­ging. Mem­bers con­sidered that the soon­er the Author­ity moves to MS Teams and issued with prop­er laptops, the bet­ter VC par­ti­cip­a­tion will be become. There was dis­cus­sion around smal­ler meet­ings being online and then dis­cus­sion for Plan­ning Com­mit­tee being wholly online rather than hybrid.
   • c) Com­ment made that have seen a shift where some people who pre­vi­ously want to attend meet­ings in per­son now want to attend virtually.
   • d) Com­ment made that good feed­back had been received from mem­bers on the train­ing events.
   • e) Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener advised that she and the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Deputy Con­vener had made a com­mit­ment to come into office for Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ings, which provided a dif­fer­ent dynam­ic rather than being on own attend­ing by VC, and they would still con­tin­ue to come in. It was noted that if a site vis­it was required it would need to take place the after­noon before the meeting.
   • f) Sug­ges­tion made that a plan­ning Com­mit­tee site vis­it could even take place on a sep­ar­ate Board Day, even a couple of weeks before the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ing the applic­a­tion in ques­tion was being determ­ined at.
   • g) Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener added that new Board mem­bers join­ing would under­go Plan­ning Com­mit­tee train­ing pri­or to sit­ting on the Com­mit­tee and this train­ing would be open to all mem­bers should any wish a refresh­er. This point of open access to board induc­tion train­ing was Agreed for all induc­tion train­ing not just plan­ning training.
   • h) Recog­ni­tion that the time­tabling for board ses­sions had been chal­len­ging, with a back­log of items still to be added to the schedule.
   • i) Board Deputy Con­vener gave a brief descrip­tion of the action points that had come from the Board Effect­ive­ness workshop:
     • i. meet­ing pro­to­cols to be developed and face to face meet­ings for board ses­sions preferred
     • ii. oppor­tun­it­ies for dis­cus­sions with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and Agen­cies, schedul­ing time what we want to cov­er as hot top­ics and feed into that
     • iii. Set up a Board What­s­App group for shar­ing articles.
     • iv. Before we do any­thing on that, Dav­id Robertson to cir­cu­late the action points via the Clerk to the Board.
     • v. Those who weren’t there may want to ask ques­tions and sug­ges­tion made to bring it to a Board Busi­ness ses­sion to dis­cuss and agree in the future.
   • j) Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment repor­ted that she had had a catch-up with Dav­id Robertson of Wild­Think­ing on how to devel­op the momentum of the train­ing. He is will­ing to take part, to share find­ings from the day, and doesn’t want any­one to feel on the peri­phery. Mem­bers were asked if they had an appet­ite for that. There was also an oppor­tun­ity to to do some­thing with Officers and Board on expect­a­tions and for a fol­low up ses­sion with the full board tak­ing in new board mem­bers. Board Con­vener agreed it would be use­ful to have anoth­er ses­sion to include new Board mem­bers and seni­or officers in May 2023.
   • k) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices advised that the inten­tion was that all Board mem­bers would be required to attend gov­ernance train­ing which would cov­er Code of Con­duct, cul­ture of the organ­isa­tion and of the Board to rein­force what has been discussed.
   • l) Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener added that she would pick up with Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning ahead of any new board mem­ber Plan­ning Com­mit­tee induc­tion train­ing to open it up to exist­ing mem­bers as a refresher.
   • m) Board Con­vener advised that new mem­bers would have focussed induc­tions and Head of Stra­tegic Plan­ning and Clerk to the Board would be involved.
   • n) Sug­ges­tion made to bring risk appet­ite train­ing early in the induc­tion, to provide a shared under­stand­ing of risk appet­ite and where we are as an Author­ity. Agreed to build into gov­ernance training.
   • o) Agreed the need to find Thour with Board in the sched­ule to share the feed­back on the Board Effect­ive­ness ses­sion, agree the actions and set to action them.

2. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee noted the update and agreed:

   • a) Plan­ning Com­mit­tee induc­tion train­ing would be opened up to exist­ing Board mem­bers to attend as a refresher.
   • b) Second Board Effect­ive­ness Ses­sion with the Board and Seni­or Staff facil­it­ated by Dav­id Robertson of Wild­Think­ing for May 2023.
   • c) Risk and Risk Appet­ite train­ing to be incor­por­ated into man­dat­ory induc­tion Gov­ernance Train­ing for Board members.
   • d) One hour of time with the Board to be found to sched­ule time to agree the actions from the Board Effect­ive­ness ses­sion on 20^th May 2022.

3. Action Point Arising:

   • i. As detailed in para­graphs 19a‑d.

Board Rep­res­ent­a­tion on Extern­al Groups Update (Oral)

1. Xan­der McDade, Chair, presen­ted the update on Board Rep­res­ent­a­tion on Extern­al Groups. He high­lighted the fol­low­ing points:

   • a) Has spoken to board mem­bers and wait­ing to see the out­come of coun­cil nom­in­a­tions before mov­ing any­one around.
   • b) Had dis­cus­sions with extern­al part­ners, about board rep­res­ent­a­tion, met with Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship and agreed hav­ing a Board mem­ber attend­ing their meet­ings as an observ­er was not very use­ful. Instead, Board Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener will meet with their chair/​vice chair and CEOs 6‑monthly.
   • c) Board Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener had met with Alex Hogg, Chair of Scot­tish Game­keep­ers Asso­ci­ation (SGA), and CEO joined the meet­ing. Feed­back from SGA was that lots of mis­con­cep­tions had been dispelled.
   • d) Board Con­vener had had a meet­ing with the Chair of Out­door Access Trust for Scot­land (OATS), CEO of OATS, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning & Place and Janet Hunter. Remain uncon­vinced at the bene­fits of hav­ing one of our Board mem­bers on their Board but agreed to con­tin­ue with Janet as an OATS board mem­ber at moment. Not much going on in CNP with OATS activ­ity and not very rel­ev­ant for Board mem­ber time and resource and staff sup­port­ing the Board. Resource intens­ive involve­ment if we not get­ting much out of it.

2. The Board Con­vener agreed to bring some pro­pos­als on dir­ec­tion headed with Board rep­res­ent­a­tion on extern­al groups to the next meet­ing on 12^th August 2022.

3. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee noted the update.

4. Action Point Arising:

   • i. Board Con­vener to bring some pro­pos­als on dir­ec­tion headed with board rep­res­ent­a­tion on extern­al groups to the next meet­ing on 12^th August 2022.

Pal­la­di­um Pro­ject and Part­ner­ship Update (Oral)

1. Motion to take this item in con­fid­en­tial ses­sion due to it being com­mer­cially sens­it­ive in nature.

AOCB

1. The Con­vener provided the fol­low­ing updates:
   • a) Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment released their resources spend­ing review the day before. CEO added that this had been at port­fo­lio level. Main news to come out of it is that it was likely to be a flat cash set­tle­ment next year for resource and an uplift on cap­it­al fund­ing how­ever there was no detail yet. If there was flat cash the Author­ity will have to absorb the fin­an­cial con­sequences of the pay bill increase while the increase of cap­it­al helps a bit on over­all fin­an­cial man­age­ment. It will still be nor­mal budget round for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃. The Scot­tish budget will be announced in Decem­ber 2022.
   • b) There would be a debate in Par­lia­ment on the 7^th of June on the new Nation­al Parks.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The next meet­ing of the Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee will take place on Fri­day 12^th August 2022.

2. The meet­ing fin­ished at 14.35hours.