230531-Mintues-V03

EAP Meet­ing

Held vir­tu­ally on the 30 May 2023

Present: Adam Streeter-Smith Bo Mansell Dan Har­ris Fiona McLean (Chair) Kate Christie Kath­er­ine Will­ing Kev­in Hutchens Lina Payne Linda Bam­ford Mur­ray Fer­guson Stu­art Hall Vanessa Altweck

Apo­lo­gies: Anita Howard Becca Mayo Heath­er Earn­shaw Peter Kennedy

1. Item one: Welcome

   • Fiona wel­comed the group to the meeting.

2. Item two: Recap and actions from pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 25 April 2023.

   • Minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing were agreed.
   • The action log was reviewed.

3. Item three: The next loc­al devel­op­ment plan and EQIA

   • Dan began by explain­ing the pur­pose of the loc­al devel­op­ment plan, the changes that have been made to the sys­tem since the last plan was writ­ten. Dan asked the pan­el to con­sider and feed­back on the EQIA that had been cir­cu­lated pri­or to the meeting.
   • The pan­el com­men­ted on breadth, hon­esty, struc­ture, and access­ib­il­ity of the EQIA. The pan­el felt over­all that the EQIA was done to a very high stand­ard, the pan­el encour­aged the use of this EQIA as a tem­plate which should be shared and util­ised by oth­er staff mem­bers. The pan­el sug­ges­ted sev­er­al changes or addi­tions to the tem­plate including:
   • Includ­ing num­bers through­out so it could cor­rel­ate to the actions section.
   • A sum­mary of the equal­ity out­comes to the tem­plate and updat­ing this after each report­ing cycle to make this more vis­ible for those who are unfa­mil­i­ar with the outcomes.
   • Adding a sec­tion to the tem­plate under impact on how the situ­ation could be improved.
   • A sec­tion on intersectionality.
   • It was agreed that com­ments on the EQIA tem­plate were wel­comed, and a blank copy would be cir­cu­lated to the pan­el for any fur­ther comments.
   • The pan­el men­tioned that any form of con­sulta­tion will need to be done with access­ib­il­ity in mind, for example con­sid­er­ing the safety that groups feel to speak about issues effect­ing them, facil­it­ies that may be needed for in per­son meet­ings such as spaces for breast­feed­ing par­ents and child­care, as well as access for those with low level of lit­er­acy by provid­ing easy read cop­ies of doc­u­ments and provid­ing for those who may not have access to digit­al cop­ies of documents.
   • The pan­el noted the devel­op­ment plan EQIA cur­rently states that it does not link to the equal­ity out­comes how­ever the pan­el felt that there is a clear link to out­come four and poten­tially to out­come three which should be included.
   • The pan­el felt sev­er­al groups had been missed from the EQIA and from poten­tial con­sulta­tion. The pan­el recog­nised that these groups of people may not feel as safe in the park so indi­vidu­al con­sulta­tion would need sought, per­haps with help from organ­isa­tions who work with these groups. Examples of the groups sug­ges­ted included:
   • BAME groups
   • LGBT groups
   • The pan­el felt that there was data lack­ing in places and some data sources needed review­ing. The pan­el sug­ges­ted the following:
   • Levels of lit­er­acy and numer­acy will affect the con­sulta­tion; there­fore, this data should be included.
   • The data util­ised to demon­strate dis­ab­il­ity and levels of depriva­tion was dated, it was sug­ges­ted that more recent research should be used. It was sug­ges­ted that for data, the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment Inform­a­tion Centre may be able to provide more recent data.
   • The pan­el felt that the gender recog­ni­tion register was not a suit­able way of gath­er­ing data on the num­ber of trans people in the nation­al park. The pan­el sug­ges­ted that as it is hard to get reli­able data for this, it would be best to work on the assump­tion that there are trans people with­in the nation­al park and acknow­ledge the dif­fi­culty of gath­er­ing and obtain­ing data.
   • The pan­el felt that using the rank­ing form the Scot­tish Index of Depriva­tion on its own did not provide an accur­ate meas­ure. The pan­el sug­ges­ted using inter­sec­tion­al­ity to bet­ter demon­strate this data.
   • The pan­el felt there was inform­a­tion lack­ing on the for­ward look of the gender pay gap.
   • The pan­el also ques­tioned how this would be affected by the data from the 2022 census was released. It was agreed by the pan­el that the changes in the data would need to be included and that this may affect the groups recog­nised in the EQIA.
   • The pan­el sug­ges­ted data and con­sulta­tion should also be gathered from churches, reli­gious groups, Scot­tish Region­al Equal­ity Coun­cils, and police on safety.
   • Dan thanked the pan­el for their com­ments and reit­er­ated that this EQIA is not the only assess­ment for the plan, there will also be an Envir­on­ment assess­ment, rel­ev­ant Census data should be avail­able, and the Scot­tish House­hold data may be avail­able. Dan explained that it will be reviewed through­out the life cycle of the plan. Dan asked the pan­el if they had any addi­tion­al com­ments for them to be made by the 23 June 2023.

4. Item four: Act­ive Cairngorms Action Plan

   • Adam and Mur­ray Intro­duced the plan to the pan­el. They high­lighted the pro­gress and what they had the abil­ity to change.
   • The pan­el felt the actions could be Improved In the fol­low­ing ways:
   • Cre­at­ing an ​“adopt a path” scheme where schools or day­care centres could adopt a path.
   • Involve Scout or Guide groups by cre­at­ing a badge they could par­ti­cip­ate in.
   • Increase volun­teer rangers.
   • Look at volun­teer ranger stat­ist­ics and demon­strate if it has become more Inclus­ive fol­low­ing equal­it­ies training.
   • The pan­el sug­ges­ted deliv­er­ing par­ti­cip­a­tion and engage­ment pri­or­it­ies in the fol­low­ing ways:
   • Include good news stor­ies about the pos­it­ive impacts on people’s health.
   • Cre­ate and SVQ qual­i­fic­a­tions for the those par­ti­cip­at­ing in the juni­or ranger programme.
   • Con­tin­ue to grow the volun­teer ranger, and juni­or ranger pro­grammes. The pan­el sug­ges­ted look­ing at ways to diver­si­fy recruit­ment and participation.
   • Include goals to part­ner with trans­port organ­isa­tions to help dif­fer­ent groups reach the activities.
   • The pan­el sug­ges­ted that there should be research into the bar­ri­ers that people and groups face when try­ing to attend or access initiatives.
   • All leaf­lets, sig­nage and way mark­ers should be avail­able in access­ible formats.

5. Item five: AOBs

   • Kate Christie Informed the group that she Is hop­ing to get a col­league along who will be able to talk about the Her­it­age hori­zons pro­jects con­clud­ing the applic­a­tion stage for delivery.
   • The group were Informed of free fund­ing for LGBT under 30s and were giv­en con­tact details to share with their network.

End of meeting

Next meet­ing 27 June 2023