Update on Equal­ity Out­comes 2021 — 2025

Intro­duc­tion

This report aims to demon­strate what the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity has been doing to ensure that the deliv­ery of equal­ity is part of our daily work. It shows that the aims of the gen­er­al duty of the Equal­ity Act (2010) are being met as part of the nat­ur­al think­ing, plan­ning, and deliv­ery cycle. This report high­lights where main­stream­ing is well embed­ded, and where it is begin­ning to emerge. The report fol­lows the inter­im reis- sue that was pub­lished in 2022, and there­fore provides an update on main­stream­ing activ­ity over the last 12 months, as well as a com­pre­hens­ive update on the last two years’ work to deliv­er our 4 Equal­ity Outcomes.

The report is divided into 6 chapters:

1. Key high­lights over the last 12 months
2. About the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority
3. Main­stream­ing the Equal­ity Duty
4. Staff and Leadership
5. Vis­it­ors and Community
6. Con­sulta­tion and partnership

Chapter 1: — Key Highlights

There has been sig­ni­fic­ant equal­it­ies activ­ity across the organ­isa­tion in the last 12 – 18 months, all of which is set out in this doc­u­ment, but the key high­lights are as follows:

a) Gender Pay Gap

The Gender pay gap for 2023 was 9.55%, which is lower than the most recently repor­ted pay gap for Scot­land (10.1% 2021). This is the low­est the gender pay gap has been for the Park Author­ity since we star­ted report­ing this data. The Park Authority’s Gender Pay Gap has been on the down­ward tra­ject­ory for the last 6 years. The full report is set out in Appendix 5

b) LGBT Charter and Action Plan

The Park Author­ity signed up to the LGBT Charter last year. The Charter Action Plan was approved by our Man­age­ment Team in Janu­ary 2023, and we hope to achieve accred­it­a­tion with­in the next 18 months. A lot of work has already been delivered, in- clud­ing a His­tory Month cam­paign this Feb­ru­ary. We are also in the pro­cess of draft- ing a Trans­gender and Non-Bin­ary Inclu­sion policy. See chapter 3 for more detail

c) Intern­al Equal­ity Group

The Park Author­ity developed an Intern­al Equal­ity, Diversity, and Inclu­sion Advocacy Group in winter 2021. This is an advis­ory group, com­pris­ing staff across the organi- sation and equal­ity char­ac­ter­ist­ics, tasked with com­ment­ing on the imple­ment­a­tion and embed­ding of equal­it­ies actions. Spe­cific­ally, the group ensures that Equal­ity and Diversity require­ments are suit­ably addressed with­in the organ­isa­tion by con­tin- ually rais­ing aware­ness and rein­for­cing the mes­sage that Equal­ity and Diversity is ​“everyone’s busi­ness”. They are tasked also with find­ing prac­tic­al solu­tions to any bar­ri­ers that may present them­selves in deliv­er­ing the Authority’s aspir­a­tions and oblig­a­tions around equal­ity and Diversity. See chapter 3 for more detail

d) Extern­al Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el (EAP)

The EAP has gone from strength to strength since it was estab­lished in September

1. There are 11 mem­bers, all of whom volun­teer their time and equal­it­ies exper- tise and enthu­si­asm to help our staff embed equal­it­ies and inclu­sion in all our work. They provide up to date, author­it­at­ive and evid­ence-based advice and guid­ance on equal­ity and inclus­ive prac­tice and approaches. They crit­ic­ally assess our policy and strategy from an equal­it­ies per­spect­ive and provide recom­mend­a­tions to sup­port the Park Author­ity officers to deliv­er best prac­tice approaches to Equal­ity and Inclu­sion. The group met in per­son for the first time last Septem­ber, and had the oppor­tun­ity to vis­it some of the key pro­jects sup­por­ted by the Park Author­ity, includ­ing the new Aviemore Com­munity Hos­pit­al, and the Alzheimers Centre at Bad­aguish. All repor­ted that spend­ing time in the park, and phys­ic­ally meet­ing each oth­er strengthened their resolve and com­mit­ment to sup­port the Park Authority’s equal­it­ies work. See chap- ter 3 for more detail.

e) Alzheimer Centre

Alzheimer Scotland’s first Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre at Bad­aguish Out­door Centre near Aviemore, opened in April 2023. The unique centre enables people with demen­tia and their fam­ily and carers to exper­i­ence the bene­fits of green health ac- tiv­it­ies. Alzheimer Scot­land believes that access to the out­doors is essen­tial for peo- ple liv­ing with demen­tia and their carers. People liv­ing with demen­tia can be at risk of becom­ing socially isol­ated, lonely, and depressed, and as a res­ult often devel­op an indoor life­style. Spend­ing time out­doors can provide instant bene­fits, includ­ing reduc- ing stress and dis­tress asso­ci­ated with demen­tia, increas­ing, and improv­ing phys­ic­al activ­ity, provid­ing men­tally enga­ging activ­it­ies, and provid­ing oppor­tun­it­ies to learn new skills and hob­bies or redis­cov­er old ones. It also gives people with demen­tia and their fam­ily or carers a chance to con­nect in a dif­fer­ent envir­on­ment and have fun to- geth­er. The pro­ject is part of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro- gramme which is sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund thanks to Na- tion­al Lot­tery play­ers. The team at Alzheimer Scot­land are aware that not all people with demen­tia are able to travel to the new centre- and so to con­nect with more

f) Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan Con­sulta­tion Process

The new Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan was form­ally approved by our Board in June 2022, fol­low­ing an extens­ive con­sulta­tion peri­od, dur­ing which 1,453 responses were received online, via email and by post, as com­pared with a total of 319 for the equiv- alent con­sulta­tion five years ago. We also gathered equal­it­ies and demo­graph­ic data of the respond­ents. Res­ults were mixed, and when com­pared to pre­vi­ous con­sulta- tion data gathered, showed increased engage­ment across some minor­ity groups (sex, and dis­ab­il­ity age range), but poorer engage­ment across oth­ers (eth­ni­city). How­ever, the key suc­cess is that we have good bench mark data against which to meas­ure engage­ment going for­ward, where such data was very min­im­al pre­vi­ously. See Chapter 6 for more detail about the con­sulta­tion process

g) Inclus­ive Imagery

Fol­low­ing feed­back from the Equal­ity Advis­ory pan­el that our imagery on our social media and print chan­nels was lim­ited, we have com­mis­sioned over 1,000 people- based images over the past 12 months and well over 10% of these fea­tured under- rep­res­en­ted groups or com­munit­ies. A pho­toshoot is sched­uled this month (in col­lab- ora­tion with Able2Adventure) to secure a bank of images of people using hire-able adapt­ive equip­ment on access­ible paths to increase the diversity of rep­res­ent­a­tion in our routine com­mu­nic­a­tions. This fol­lows a spe­cif­ic pho­toshoot in the autumn of 2022 for eth­nic minor­ity vis­it­ors to the Nation­al Park.

h) Volun­teer Cairngorms

Volun­teer Cairngorms have partnered with Home Start East High­land, the Rape and Sexu­al Viol­ence Centre in Perth and Kinross, and Search­light Asylum Seekers. For the lat­ter, we facil­it­ate days out with a pur­pose for Asylum seekers, via the ​‘Volun­teer Exper­i­ence Pro­gramme’. This Pro­gramme aims to Facil­it­ate safe, pos­it­ive, and mem­or­able exper­i­ences in The Cairngorms Nation­al Park by explor­ing volun­teer­ing for nature. There are cur­rently 112 men con­nec­ted with the char­ity, and we take them out in groups of 12. So far we’ve taken down KMs of deer fence, men­ded paths in the moun­tains, and ring barked invas­ive spe­cies to sup­port nat­ive growth. There are a vari­ety of lan­guages and skill sets in the group, which make for a won­der­ful day of get­ting to know each oth­er. The men love volun­teer­ing and help­ing out where they can in Scot­land, and for many this is the first time they’ll have been in Cairngorms Nation­al Park, and for some, it’s the only time they get out of the city

i) Scot Inform Com­munity Engage­ment Report

The Park Author­ity com­mis­sioned a pro­ject to review the com­munity engage­ment work under­taken across the Nation­al Park in the last 5 years, includ­ing the devel­op­ment stages of the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. This was delivered by Scot­in­form, who have just pro­duced the draft report which also provides guid­ance on how to best eval­u­ate the effect­ive­ness of exist­ing and future com­munity engage­ment. The report iden­ti­fied that there is sig­ni­fic­ant com­mit­ment to enga­ging with loc­al and vis­it­or com­munit­ies, and the con­sult­ant was not aware of any oth­er loc­a­tion ins Scot­land with such a high volume of com­munity engage­ment. The report was par­tic­u­larly help­ful in terms of inform­ing and shap­ing how we might approach future engage­ment activ­ity to bet­ter engage with minor­it­ized com­munit­ies. See chapter 3 for more inform­a­tion on the Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject engagement..

j) Cairngorms Nature Festival

The Fest­iv­al was on-line in 2021 and in-per­son over a week­end in 2022, but this year, it has evolved into a 10 day fest­iv­al, which will give more people the oppor­tun­ity to engage with it. We are work­ing with refugee groups and Home­start High­land to estab­lish their interests, bar­ri­ers, and needs. The pro­gramme is still being final­ised, but so far there are 6 events spe­cific­ally for inclu­sion groups, includ­ing hand­cyc­ling for dis­abled adults, inclus­ive canoe­ing for dis­abled fam­il­ies, adapt­ive bik­ing and off road wheel­chair taster ses­sions, out­door climb­ing for adults with dis­ab­il­it­ies and guided adapt­ive bik­ing for dis­abled fam­il­ies. A new web­site has been cre­ated to sup­port engage­ment with the Fest­iv­al, and allows events to be eas­ily searched using a range of cri­ter­ia includ­ing: wheel­chair access, toi­lets, fam­ily friendly and free events. On the events page, pub­lic trans­port and full access­ib­il­ity inform­a­tion is dis­played, includ­ing any hid­den costs like park­ing fees. See chapter 5 for more detail.

k) Cairngorms Green Recov­ery Fund

This was a part­ner­ship between the Park Author­ity and The Cairngorms Trust and aimed to sup­port the recov­ery of the Cairngorms eco­nomy from the wide­spread im- pacts of COV­ID-19, while pro­tect­ing and enhan­cing the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and seek­ing to address the ongo­ing impacts of cli­mate change. Key high­lights from the pro­gramme so far included a pro­ject to deliv­er two ​“Branch­ing Out” out­door men­tal health pro­jects in Strath­spey, run by the loc­al char­ity Roots and Shoots, as well as a

l) Engage­ment- around the loc­al elec­tions of board members.

We imple­men­ted a num­ber of innov­at­ive activ­it­ies to encour­age people to put them- selves for­ward for the board loc­al elec­tions, and also to encour­age people to vote in these elec­tions, includ­ing arran­ging a num­ber of pub­lic meet­ings in set­tle­ments across the Park, as well as devel­op­ing videos which show­cased a vari­ety of res­id­ent voices from across the Park, speak­ing in their own words about why it was im- port­ant to stand – and later vote – in the elec­tions. There was a doordrop to every house­hold in the Park explain­ing the elec­tions pro­cess and encour­aging them to stand. This included a prom­in­ent head­line say­ing, ​‘We are seek­ing people from a wide range of back­grounds to apply’. We included a full art­icle on the elec­tions pro- cess as part of Cairn magazine, which is a Park Author­ity designed and writ­ten mag- azine that is sent to every house­hold in the Park. This included a spe­cif­ic sec­tion of the art­icle explod­ing myths about the ​‘type of per­son’ who usu­ally applies and why we’re keen to broaden it out. Our press release used the same kind of lan­guage. We cre­ated a series of simple ​‘explain­ers’ on social media to break down the pro­cess of stand­ing and vot­ing into plain Eng­lish. See chapter 2 for more information.

Chapter 2: — About the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity was estab­lished in 2003. The Cairngorms Nation­al Park is the UK’s largest nation­al park and cov­ers 5 loc­al author­ity areas. It is home to 18,000 res­id­ents and wel­comes two mil­lion vis­it­ors each year. Nearly half of the nation­al park is con­sidered ​“wild land” and it con­tains one quarter of Scotland’s nat­ive forest and a quarter of the rare and endangered spe­cies in the UK.

The Park Author­ity was set up to ensure the unique aspects if the Cairngorms – both the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment and loc­al com­munit­ies are cared for, sus­tained, and enhanced for cur­rent and future gen­er­a­tions to enjoy.

Our Pur­pose:

The pur­pose of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Is to pro­mote part­ner­ship work- ing and give lead­er­ship to all bod­ies and agen­cies Involved In the sus­tain­able growth

and devel­op­ment of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park. Through coordin­at­ing devel­op­ment and col­lect­ive agree­ment pf the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP), the Park Author­ity aims to ensure the ​“col­lect­ive and co-ordin­ated deliv­ery” of the four aims of the Nation­al Park, which are:

1. Το con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area
2. To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area
3. To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (Includ­ing enjoy­ment In the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public
4. To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities

Our Vis­ion:

An out­stand­ing Nation­al Park, enjoyed and val­ued by every­one, where nature and peo- ple thrive together

Our Mis­sion:

1. Bring­ing people togeth­er towards a com­mon purpose
2. Enhan­cing the Park for everyone
3. Inspir­ing new gen­er­a­tions to be Park Champions

Our Val­ues:

The Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Is an open, Inclus­ive, Innov­at­ive, and profes- sion­al organ­isa­tion, that behaves with Integrity.

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (2022 — 2027):

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Nation­al Park will coordin­ate their work to tackle the most Import­ant Issues. Fol- low­ing an extens­ive con­sulta­tion, through which nearly 1,500 people respon­ded to the con­sulta­tion, the NPPP for the peri­od 2022 — 2027 was approved by our Board In June 2022, and signed off by Ministers

The full plan can be accessed in the fol­low­ing link:

[Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 27](Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 27)

The nature and cli­mate crisis is at the core of the new Cairngorms Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. That plan sets out how we will look after the Park and how we devel­op and deliv­er a well-being eco­nomy that works for the people of the Cairngorms whilst also restor­ing nature and deliv­er­ing net zero.

The Plan focuses on the three core areas on Nature, People and Place.

1. Nature: — the Cairngorms Is the UK’s largest Nation­al Park, home to one quarter of the UK’s rare and endangered spe­cies. We’ll take action to pro­tect and enhance the area’s nat­ur­al her­it­age. Pri­or­it­ies Include: a. Going bey­ond net zero b. Expand­ing wood­land c. Restor­ing peat­land d. Help­ing hab­it­ats thrive e. Redu­cing deer Impacts f. Man­aging land sus­tain­ably g. Green Investment

2. People: — We want people and nature to thrive togeth­er In the Cairngorms Nation­al park. To achieve this, we will devel­op and sup­port a loc­al eco­nomy that works for all our com­munit­ies. Pri­or­it­ies Include: a. A thriv­ing pop­u­la­tion b. Focus­ing on well­being c. Devel­op­ing green jobs d. Being a Park for All e. Empower­ing com­munit­ies f. Improv­ing people’s health g. Sup­port­ing volunteers

3. Place: — Any­one that wishes to live In, work In or vis­it the Nation­al Park should be able to do so, but we recog­nise that a num­ber of bar­ri­ers still exist. We will tackle them through: a. More afford­able hous­ing b. Trans­form­ing trans­port c. Con­nect­ing com­munit­ies d. Redu­cing tour­ism Impacts e. wel­com­ing vis­it­ors f. Help­ing com­munit­ies thrive g. Cel­eb­rat­ing cul­tur­al heritage

See chapter 6 for detailed inform­a­tion about the con­sulta­tion pro­cess and equal­it­ies data

Cor­por­ate Plan for 2023 – 2027.

The Cor­por­ate Plan was developed in the con­text of the Min­is­teri­al approved Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 – 2027. The Cor­por­ate Plan sets out how the Park Author­ity will help to deliv­er the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and will also con­tin­ue to strive to be the best small pub­lic body in Scotland’

Our ambi­tion is set out across three themes – Nature, People and Place. These are the themes of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and the Cor­por­ate Plan sets out the role of the Nation­al Park Author­ity in help­ing to deliv­er the object­ives set out in that doc­u­ment. This is under­pinned by our cor­por­ate func­tions and com­mu­nic­a­tions and engage­ment work.

The detailed Cor­por­ate Plan can be accessed In the fol­low­ing link:

[233024CNPABdPaper2_Annex1DraftCorporatePlan.pdf (cairngorms.co.uk)](233024CNPABdPaper2_Annex1DraftCorporatePlan.pdf (cairngorms​.co​.uk))

Her­it­age Hori­zons Cairngorms 2030 Programme

If we’re going to be suc­cess­ful in deliv­er­ing the Part­ner­ship Plan, we’ll need to change the way we do things. Our Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme is cent­ral to this. Inspired by the Gael­ic word Dùthchas – mean­ing the deep-rooted con­nec­tion between people and nature – the pro­gramme puts the power to tackle the cli­mate and nature crises in the hands of people who live, work, and vis­it here. Across 20 long-term pro­jects, Her­it­age Hori­zons will bring about trans­form­a­tion­al and inclus­ive change in the Cairngorms, bene­fit­ing health and well­being, deliv­er­ing on cli­mate change, and enhan­cing nature across the Nation­al Park. Her­it­age Hori­zons is an unpre­ced­en­ted part­ner­ship of over 45 organ­isa­tions and is sup­por­ted by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund.

In par­tic­u­lar, the £43m Her­it­age Hori­zons: Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme will focus on:

a) Put­ting res­id­ents at the heart of decision-mak­ing and giv­ing them more say in future fund­ing decisions.

b) Work­ing with land man­agers to explore new ways of man­aging land, as well as restor­ing and enhan­cing large areas of peat­land and woodland.

c) Work­ing with com­munit­ies and part­ners to improve pub­lic trans­port and bet­ter con­nect the Nation­al Park.

d) Devel­op­ing an eco­nomy that bene­fits people and nature, and provid­ing green solu­tions to pub­lic health issues includ­ing Cov­id-19 recov­ery, social isol­a­tion and dementia.

The pro­gramme devel­op­ment phase star­ted on 1^st Octo­ber 2021 and will run to 17^th August 2023.

NLHF have six pri­or­ity out­comes, of which the first one is ​“a wider range of people will be involved In her­it­age”. In the devel­op­ment phase pro­jects have been tri­al­ling dif­fer­ent mod­els of Engage­ment with com­munit­ies and indi­vidu­als, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on con­nect­ing with ​‘hard to reach’ groups, identi­fy­ing bar­ri­ers that will pre­vent people from being able to engage, and find­ing ways to over­come these bar­ri­ers. Included in the pro­gramme are pro­jects to devel­op new act­ive and sus­tain­able travel options in the Nation­al Park, with under­ly­ing design prin­ciples that every devel­op­ment will be access­ible to all Users. Oth­er pro­jects include devel­op­ing NHS part­ner­ships focused on

green health refer­rals and sup­port­ing a new Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre to ensure that par­ti­cip­a­tion in nature activ­it­ies is widened to be as inclus­ive as pos­sible. The next stage applic­a­tion is for the deliv­ery stage, which will be sub­mit­ted to the Na- tion­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund in August 2023.

Our Board

The role of the Park Author­ity Board is to agree long term object­ives for the Nation­al Park through the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and to set the pri­or­it­ies of work for the Park Author­ity. In addi­tion to approv­ing the stra­tegic dir­ec­tion of the organ­isa­tion, the Board is also respons­ible for ensur­ing high stand­ards of gov­ernance, mon­it­or­ing and over­see­ing the deliv­ery of agreed object­ives and com­pli­ance with stat­utory responsibilities.

Click the fol­low­ing link for details of our board members: -

[Park Author­ity Board — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority](Park Author­ity Board — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority)

19 Mem­bers make up the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) Board:

• 7 mem­bers appoin­ted by Scot­tish Min­is­ters, to bring a nation­al per­spect­ive to the Board and spe­cif­ic expert­ise from a range of sub­jects rel­ev­ant to the Park
• 5 mem­bers are elec­ted loc­ally, which brings to the Board the valu­able per­spect­ive of the Park’s loc­al communities.
• 7 mem­bers are nom­in­ated by the 5 coun­cils in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park: High­land (2), Aber­deen­shire (2), Moray (1), Angus (1), Perth & Kinross (1). These mem­bers are expec­ted to cement the key stra­tegic rela­tion­ships between the Park Author­ity and its part­ner loc­al authorities

For the last 4 years, the board com­prised 10 female and 9 male mem­bers, achiev­ing the 50:50 by 2020” gender equal­ity tar­get. How­ever, 2023 brings change to the Board, as a recruit­ment cam­paign is cur­rently under way for 6 Min­is­teri­al appoint­ments, and there were also elec­tions for the 5 elec­ted pos­i­tions this March.

For the Min­is­teri­al appoint­ments, the Park Author­ity has no dir­ect influ­ence over who is appoin­ted, but we do have a role to play in identi­fy­ing the skills gaps in the col­lect­ive board. This is done through a skills sur­vey that is self pop­u­lated by Board mem­bers, and

which feeds in to a col­lect­ive skills mat­rix that is shared with the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Appoint­ments Com­mit­tee, who are respons­ible for recruit­ing and appoint­ing the Minis- ter­i­al appointments.

For the loc­al elec­tions, we arranged a num­ber of pub­lic meet­ings in set­tle­ments across the Park. In addi­tion, we developed videos which show­cased a vari­ety of res­id­ent voices from across the Park, speak­ing in their own words about why it was import­ant to stand – and later vote – in the elec­tions. The High­land Coun­cil (who were over­see­ing the elec­tions) sent a Park Author­ity-designed doordrop to every house­hold in the Park ex- plain­ing the elec­tions pro­cess and encour­aging them to stand. This included a prom­in­ent head­line say­ing, ​‘We are seek­ing people from a wide range of back­ground to apply’. We included a full art­icle on the elec­tions pro­cess as part of Cairn magazine, which is a Park Author­ity designed and writ­ten magazine that is sent to every house­hold in the Park. This included a spe­cif­ic sec­tion of the art­icle explod­ing myths about the ​‘type of per­son’ who usu­ally applies and why we’re keen to broaden it out. Our press release used the same kind of lan­guage. We cre­ated a series of simple ​‘explain­ers’ on social media to break down the pro­cess of stand­ing and vot­ing into plain Eng­lish. We also worked with the High­land Coun­cil to ensure the whole elec­tions pro­cess was broad­cast live on You­Tube, help­ing demys­ti­fy the pro­cess of vot­ing / stand­ing in elec­tions of this type. There were a total of 20 can­did­ates for these 5 places. Of the 20 can­did­ates 60% were men and 40% were women (in com­par­is­on to 75% male and 25% female at the last elec­tions in 2019). The final out­come was that of the 5 elec­ted mem­bers, 3 were men and 2 were woman (in com­par­is­on to 2019 when 2 men and 3 women were elected).

Giv­en the gap between Min­is­teri­al appoint­ments depart­ing and the new appoint­ments start­ing, as at 1^st April 2023, the Board com­prised 17 mem­bers, of which 9 are male and 8 are female, with two vacan­cies. 4 of these are com­ing to the end of their appoint- ment this year, and there­fore in terms of the under­ly­ing longer term com­pos­i­tion, we have 8 male and 5 female board mem­bers pri­or to the impact of pub­lic appoint­ments to be made.

Chapter 3: Main­stream­ing the Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity Duty

This sec­tion of the report demon­strates what the Park Author­ity has been doing to main­stream the Equal­ity Duty into our daily work. It details how we have integ­rated this into our nat­ur­al think­ing, plan­ning and deliv­ery cycle. We have split this in to three sec- tions; Engage­ment and Par­ti­cip­a­tion, Cor­por­ate Func­tion and Pro­cesses, and Ser­vice Provision.

Sec­tion 1 — Engage­ment and participation

Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el (EAP): -

The Park Author­ity estab­lished an Extern­al Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el in 2020. The aim of the pan­el is to provide informed, evid­ence-based feed­back, guid­ance, and advice to sup- port the CNPA to:

• ensure stat­utory pub­lic sec­tor equal­ity duties are delivered in accord­ance with The Equal­ity Act 2010 (and oth­er rel­ev­ant equal­ity legislation);
• embed Equal­ity and Inclu­sion in their strategies and cor­por­ate processes;
• crit­ic­ally assess and appro­pri­ately mit­ig­ate the impact of CNPA decisions on equal­ity groups through robust equal­ity impact assess­ment procedures;
• ensure best prac­tice in equal­ity and inclu­sion approaches to their work;
• pro­mote equal­ity and inclu­sion work of CNPA and part­ners with­in the park.

The pan­el is chaired by Fiona McLean, the Park Authority’s Board Equal­it­ies Cham­pi­on. It com­prises 11 mem­bers, rep­res­ent­ing expert­ise and enthu­si­asm across a vari­ety of equal­it­ies spe­cial­isms. Mem­bers are volun­teers and recruited through an open recruit- ment pro­cess. The pan­el meets vir­tu­ally every month, and had its first face to face meet- ing in Septem­ber 2022. For details of the pan­el and its mem­ber­ship, see the fol­low­ing link: [Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority](Equality Advis­ory Pan­el — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority)

Over the last 12 months, the pan­el has made sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tions to :-

a) The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan. Fol­low­ing sug­ges­tions from the pan­el, hard cop­ies of the draft NPPP were pro­duced for the con­sulta­tion, and plans were put in place to ensure those who did not have access to web­sites or the inter­net were able to access the con­sulta­tion pro­cess. The pan­el also sub­mit­ted a form­al response to the con­sulta­tion, and changes were made to the Plan as a result.

b) Advice on Action Plans, Stra­tegic Plans and Briefs. The pan­el have com­men­ted on mul­tiple plans/​briefs, includ­ing the Stra­tegic Tour­ism Infra­struc­ture Plan, the E- Bike Con­sultancy Brief, and the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Action Plan. These con­tri­bu­tions have encour­aged officers to include equal­it­ies with­in the plans, as well as provid­ing them with valu­able con­nec­tions and examples of good practice.

c) CNPA Com­mu­nic­a­tions Strategy. The pan­el ini­tially com­men­ted on the com­mu­nic­a­tions strategy when it was at draft stage, and iden­ti­fied sev­er­al under­rep­res­en­ted groups they felt were miss­ing from the doc­u­ment. The pan­el gave advice on design­ing equal­ity focused con­sulta­tions. As a res­ult of their input, the Com­mu­nic­a­tions team: reviewed the pho­to­graphy assets and researched into com­mis­sion­ing more diverse pho­to­graph; hired Scot Inform to help reach those who would not nor­mally respond to con­sulta­tions includ­ing equal­ity and minor­ity groups; tasked the digit­al access­ib­il­ity centre with audit­ing CNPA sys­tems to check the access­ib­il­ity, feed­back and provide poten­tial recom­mend­a­tions which the com­mu­nic­a­tions team con­tin­ue to work through. d) CNPA New Web­site. The Pan­el took part in an activ­ity with the con­sult­ants and sug­ges­ted mul­tiple examples of access­ible web­sites which will help shape the new web­site that is cur­rently being tendered, and sug­ges­ted ​“jour­ney test­ing” to ensure it is access­ible and easy to nav­ig­ate. e) Her­it­age Hori­zons Pro­ject. The pan­el has giv­en advice on most of the pro­jects being delivered through the HH devel­op­ment stage, so that equal­it­ies has been included in all pro­jects from incep­tion. The Pan­el have giv­en examples of good prac­tice, areas in plans that may need revi­sion, groups that have been missed, and con­nec­tions with organ­isa­tions that may improve the pro­ject. f) Diver­si­fy­ing Recruit­ment. The pan­el advised review­ing the lan­guage of job descrip­tions and per­son spe­cific­a­tions, remov­ing essen­tial require­ments for a driver’s licence and degree Qual­i­fic­a­tions unless the role can­not be delivered without them

g) Pro­nouns. The Pan­el gave advice on the pro­cess and lan­guage for invit­ing staff to dis­play their pronouns

h) Advice to oth­er organ­isa­tions. The Pan­el have giv­en advice and fed into mul­tiple pro­jects for extern­al speak­ers, includ­ing the Scot­tish Youth Hos­telling Asso­ci­ation, the Spey­side Trust and Bad­aguish Pro­ject, Par­a­tek (com­ment­ing on the suit­ab­il­ity of the Trek­ker device), Back­bone, Glen­more Cor­ridor Sus­tain­able Trans­port Plan, Aviemore to Car­rbridge Non-Motor­ised User Route Study

i) Guid­ance and advice on the 2023 Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al. The pan­el advised on the need for some low-cost free events, and also made sev­er­al recom­mend­a­tions to make the fest­iv­al more access­ible, eg loc­at­ing events near chan­ging places toi­lets where pos­sible, coordin­at­ing the tim­ings of events with pub­lic trans­port. The pan­el also advised on sug­ges­ted partnerships

Intern­al Equal­ity, Diversity, and Inclu­sion Advocacy Group

The Park Author­ity estab­lished and Intern­al Equal­ity, Diversity, and Inclu­sion Advocacy Group in Novem­ber 2021. The over­arch­ing pur­pose of this group is to cham­pi­on the in- teg­ra­tion of Equal­ity, Diversity & Inclus­iv­ity prin­ciples into daily work­ing life at CNPA at an organ­isa­tion­al level, and give staff from minor­ity groups a suit­able envir­on­ment to share their lived exper­i­ence at the CNPA and inform any changes in cul­ture or policy to facil­it­ate improved diversity and integ­ra­tion. Spe­cific­ally the group ensures that Equal­ity and Diversity require­ments are suit­ably addressed with­in the organ­iz­a­tion by con­tinu- ally rais­ing aware­ness and rein­for­cing the mes­sage that Equal­ity and Diversity is ​“eve- ryone’s busi­ness”. It facil­it­ates com­mu­nic­a­tion, debate and dia­logue relat­ing to Equal­ity and Diversity issues, and seeks to find prac­tic­al solu­tions to any bar­ri­ers that may pre- sent them­selves in deliv­er­ing the Authority’s aspir­a­tions and oblig­a­tions around equal­ity and diversity.

The group meets quarterly and com­prises staff from across the organ­isa­tion both with regards teams, grades, and minor­ity groups. It is a very act­ive and engaged group and has in the last 12 months car­ried out the fol­low­ing activities:

a) Sup­por­ted the devel­op­ment of the train­ing brief for pro­cur­ing Equal­it­ies train­ing for all staff, and informed the con­tent of the Man­age­ment and Board ses­sions, as well as the Com­mu­nic­a­tions approach to staff attend­ing the equal­it­ies training

b) Recom­men­ded the organ­isa­tion sign up to the LGBT Charter. This pro­pos­al was taken to the Seni­or Man­age­ment Team for con­sid­er­a­tion and approval.

c) Informed the organ­isa­tions approach to staff dis­play­ing their pronouns

d) Signed off the Park Authority’s form­al response to the PSED Consultation

e) Took on the role of LGBT Charter Cham­pi­ons to sup­port the LGBT Accred­it­a­tion journey

f) Informed the ques­tions to include in the 2023 staff equal­it­ies mon­it­or­ing sur­vey, around the prin­ciple that we wanted to do more than just what was required to be leg­ally compliant.

g) Developed the LGBT Charter Action Plan

h) Informed the revi­sion of the EqlA form and sup­port­ing guidance

i) Recom­men­ded the devel­op­ment of a Neurodi­versity Policy, which was sub­sequently draf­ted, con­sul­ted with staff and has now been adopted

j) Recom­men­ded the devel­op­ment of a Reas­on­able Adjust­ments Pass­port Policy which is cur­rently being drafted

k) Sup­por­ted the devel­op­ment of the Trans­gender Inclu­sion Policy which is cur­rently being drafted.

The Group sup­por­ted a staff drop-in ses­sion dur­ing His­tory Month in Feb­ru­ary. This was a pos­it­ive and engaged event, that gen­er­ated a num­ber of new actions to sup­port diver- sity in the organ­isa­tion. Staff com­men­ted that they felt that the cul­ture in the organ­isa- tion had become notice­ably more inclus­ive in the last 12 months.

Schools and Young People

The Park Author­ity act­ively works with schools and young people both with­in and out with the nation­al Park. Our engage­ment with young people has included the following:-

Out­door Learn­ing Travel Grants

The grant is a sub­sidy to sup­port people both with­in and out with the Nation­al Park. Over half the applic­ants would not be able to vis­it the park without the grant. Grants were awar­ded until 2019, but in 2020, no travel grants were awar­ded due to Cov­id-19 travel restric­tions. Since restric­tions were lif­ted, we awar­ded 41 travel grants, of which 28 went to Primary Schools, 8 to Sec­ond­ary Schools and 5 to Vol­un­tary Groups.

Youth Employ­ment Strategy

The Park Author­ity is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing young people into employ­ment and has form­ally adop­ted a Youth Employ­ment Strategy. in Janu­ary 2022, we also signed up to the Young Person’s Guar­an­tee Home | Young Per­sons guar­an­tee, through which we have com­mit­ted to cre­at­ing and sup­port­ing a vari­ety of oppor­tun­it­ies for young people who are try­ing to estab­lish their careers. The sup­port we have provided in the last 12 months includes:-

a) We have hos­ted two Gradu­ate Train­ee Account­ant posts – both con­tracts last for a peri­od of more than 12 months.

b) We have hos­ted sev­er­al intern­ships, includ­ing a 6‑month Cairngorms Nature Big Week­end Intern, and a 4‑month Digit­al Con­tent Intern. We plan to sup­port anoth­er two intern­ships in the Vis­it­or Exper­i­ence team over the com­ing year.

c) We have sup­por­ted Careers events at the loc­al sec­ond­ary schools, aimed at inform­ing young peoples’ sub­ject choices for poten­tial career options.

d) We have hos­ted 4 young school stu­dents on Work Exper­i­ence place­ments, one of them work­ing with our IT team one after­noon per week through­out term time.

e) We have sup­por­ted two young staff mem­bers to do the Young Scot­land Pro­gramme, which is a res­id­en­tial, week-long course aimed at enhan­cing com­mu­nic­a­tion skills, inspir­ing con­fid­ence and broad­en­ing the intel­lec­tu­al hori­zons of people in the early years of their careers

f) We employed 4 Train­ee Rangers in 2022. In addi­tion to get­ting exper­i­ence in Ran­ger­ing skills, they also get train­ing on trans­fer­able skills to enhance their

employ­ab­il­ity. One of last years Train­ee Rangers has been recruited into the one of the Sea­son­al Ranger posts this year. In 2021, we hos­ted 4 Train­ee Rangers through the Kick­start pro­gramme. 2 of the 4 returned in 2022 as Sea­son­al Rangers. The oppor­tun­ity to be a train­ee ranger is a key career pipeline to the Ranger Service.

g) We recruit a num­ber if Volun­teer Rangers and from the 2022 intake, there were a good num­ber of applic­ants from and appoint­ments of young people, in part seek­ing to gain exper­i­ence before mov­ing into a land based career

h) We have sup­por­ted sev­er­al Uni­ver­sity stu­dents with work shad­ow­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, which give them a feel for the type of work the Park Author­ity car­ries out and appro­pri­ate career paths for this work; and also sup­ports man­dat­ory work exper­i­ence required to gain their qualifications.

Rur­al Skills.

The Park Authority’s Peat­land team is sup­port­ing young people in schools across the park to help them under­stand the full range of oppor­tun­it­ies that this import­ant work can provide. These range from car­ry­ing out the ground works them­selves through to pro­ject man­aging works as a land man­ager or agent, or spe­cify­ing works as a con- sul­t­ant. This will be achieved by sup­port­ing the in-school ​‘Path­ways to Rur­al Work’ pro­gramme being facil­it­ated by Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land. Mem­bers of our team will help pro­duce inform­a­tion pack­ages, provide present­a­tions, and attend events through­out the year that will be tar­geted to school stu­dents approach­ing leav­ing ages (S4-S6). In addi­tion we aim to host field trips to see peat res­tor­a­tion work and will work to facil­it­ate work place­ment opportunities”.

Cairngorms Youth Action Team (CYAT)

The Park Author­ity sup­por­ted the devel­op­ment of a Youth Coun­cil sev­er­al years ago, after the Euro­parc Con­fer­ence (2018). This has evolved and is now called the Cairn- gorms Youth Action Team (CYAT). The main aims of this team are to devel­op proce- dures and pro­to­cols for recruit­ment and man­age­ment of a youth coun­cil; estab­lish what areas of work the youth coun­cil will be in volved in, devel­op an appro­pri­ate mod­el for inter­ac­tion with the Part Authority’s board. .There is a rolling recruit­ment of young people to the Cairngorms Youth Action Team

The CYAT also deliv­er the Cairngorms Youth Fund for the Cairngorms Trust. To do this, they formed a sub group, the Youth Loc­al Action Group . The Youth LAG drew up the terms of the grant scheme, includ­ing devis­ing a set of aims, fund cri­ter­ia, an ap- plication form and scor­ing sys­tem.. In the last year, 22 mem­bers of the CYAT ran two suc­cess­ful rounds of the Youth LAG Fund. The work of the Cairngorms Youth Loc­al Action Group sup­por­ted by the Cairngorms Trust is ground-break­ing in Scot- land, in enga­ging young people dir­ectly in decision mak­ing and fund­ing pro­jects that young people see as import­ant for the Cairngorms, its com­munit­ies and people

Feed­back from pro­ject par­ti­cipants has been very pos­it­ive and shows the range and scope of pos­it­ive out­comes the pro­ject is hav­ing for young people across the CNP, in- clud­ing suc­cess­fully enga­ging with equal­it­ies and pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic groups (young people, low income, LGB­TQ+, dis­ab­il­ity, race).

One of the pro­jects was Pad­dling with Pride, which sup­ports the LGB­TQ+ com­mu- nity through monthly queer paddle meet-ups in the Cairngorms. They have received two grants for kit for their mem­bers. Feed­back from one of their members:-

“Hon­estly I could nev­er have ima­gined what this group would mean to me in just a few months. It’s the best. I would love to see the group grow and wel­come new mem­bers because I just would love for oth­er folk to get out of it what I do: total queer joy, com­munity and also the chance to get out­side and actu­ally learn how to paddle. Forever grate­ful for this group being set up and help­ing me find home in the highlands.”

Anoth­er pro­ject is the Cac­tus Book Club which sup­ports indi­vidu­als aged 16 – 26 who are isol­ated due to health prob­lems (phys­ic­al dis­ab­il­it­ies, chron­ic ill­ness, men­tal health). They received a grant to send two care pack­ages to twenty young people in Brae­mar, Bal­later and Strathspey

The CYAT has been very busy with oth­er engage­ment activ­it­ies as well over the past year with lots of activ­it­ies and events tak­ing place

a) 4 x res­id­en­tials. Orkney Feb 23: Bad­aguish Nov 22:; Bad­aguish March 22:; Badagu