Annex 1

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

Form­al Board Paper 7 Annex 1 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 1 of 4

Title: Board Fees Policy Review Pre­pared by: Xan­der McDade, Con­vener, Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

1. Back­ground a) In 2019 the Board agreed a revised Board Fees Policy which brought in a pos­i­tion of a 30 day ​“base rate” with the abil­ity to top up an extra 6 days through volun­teer­ing for addi­tion­al duties. It also brought in a sys­tem of off­set­ting to allow mem­bers to use addi­tion­al work under­taken on behalf of the Park to com­pensate for any missed days.

b) This policy replaced the 2017 Board Fees Policy of auto­mat­ic deduc­tions for any missed meet­ings which often led to the Board Mem­bers who were under­tak­ing con­sid­er­able extra duties on behalf of the Park being pen­al­ised for the occa­sion­al missed meet­ing. The 2019 review was under­taken due to sig­ni­fic­ant com­plaints from Board Mem­bers about the system.

c) The 2019 review of Board Fees was car­ried out by the Con­vener and Chair of the Staff­ing & Recruit­ment Com­mit­tee with all mem­bers being asked their views on the cur­rent sys­tem and their views on any future revi­sions to it. From this open con­sulta­tion two spe­cif­ic options were scoped and put to mem­bers to indic­ate their views on with a sig­ni­fic­ant major­ity opt­ing for the cur­rent sys­tem. This was then rat­i­fied fol­low­ing a vote by the Board at a form­al meet­ing on 28 June 2019. The paper from the meet­ing can be found here — https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​b​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​8​0​6​2​0​1​9​/​1​9​0​6​2​8​C​N​P​A​B​d​P​a​p​e​r​1​A​A​B​o​a​r​d​F​e​e​s​R​e​v​i​e​w​R​e​c​o​m​m​e​n​d​ation — xmcc.pdf https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​b​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​8​0​6​2​0​1​9​/​1​9​0​6​2​8​C​N​P​A​B​d​P​a​p​e​r​1​A​n​n​e​x​1​O​f​f​s​e​t​t​i​n​g​B​o​a​r​d​F​e​e​s​R​e​v​i​e​w.pdf and the minute of the meet­ing can be found here — https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​b​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​8​0​6​2​0​1​9​/​1​9​0​6​2​8​B​o​a​r​d​V​1​.​1.pdf.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 7 Annex 1 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 2 of 4

d) It was agreed at the 30 June 2023 Resources Com­mit­tee meet­ing that some minor revi­sions to some aspects of the policy might be appro­pri­ate for review after four years of oper­a­tion. These pro­posed revi­sions are out­lined in sec­tion two.

2. Pro­posed Revisions

2.1. Num­ber of Base Days a) Under the cur­rent policy all mem­bers receive a 30 day base. Detailed cal­cu­la­tions were done in 2019 to con­sider the time com­mit­ment required for dif­fer­ent meet­ings and to reflect the sched­ule of meet­ings at the time. It was cal­cu­lated to cov­er all sched­uled form­al and inform­al meet­ings in the year along with asso­ci­ated read­ing and pre­par­a­tion time. Since these cal­cu­la­tions were done four years ago there has been some changes in Board duties includ­ing a reduc­tion in the num­ber of Plan­ning Com­mit­tees by two a year and a cor­res­pond­ing increase of two inform­al Board days.

b) How­ever, over the past couple of years there has gen­er­ally been the need to add one extra day on an ad hoc basis for train­ing or oth­er pur­poses which was not included in the ori­gin­al cal­cu­la­tion. It is there­fore pro­posed that this base fig­ure should be revised up to 32 days on the under­stand­ing that this fig­ure also cov­ers some degree of non form­al meet­ing com­mit­ments e.g. occa­sion­al attend­ance at com­munity meet­ings locally.

2.2. Com­munity Meet­ing Attendance a) A point of dis­cus­sion when the policy was first agreed was around wheth­er mem­bers should be able to gain top up through attend­ance at Com­munity Coun­cils. There was sig­ni­fic­ant dis­cus­sion about Com­munity Coun­cil­lors and loc­al author­ity Coun­cil­lors receiv­ing top up for this as it could be viewed as dual man­date. At that point it was agreed that dir­ectly elec­ted mem­bers would be eli­gible for the full top up alloc­a­tion asso­ci­ated with their com­munity coun­cils, but coun­cil­lors would only receive 50% to recog­nise the dual mandate.

b) Attend­ance at Com­munity Coun­cils has con­tin­ued to be very patchy with some com­munity coun­cils not being atten­ded by the Board Mem­ber who is receiv­ing top up alloc­a­tions for it.

c) There­fore it is pro­posed to remove top up for Com­munity Coun­cils in line with the above recom­mend­a­tion to increase the num­ber of base days and if neces­sary the

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 7 Annex 1 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 3 of 4

Con­vener may alloc­ate Mem­bers addi­tion­al time for attend­ance of com­munity meet­ings if there is spe­cial demands due to loc­al major issues. They will only be eli­gible if they are there solely in their Nation­al Park capa­city. There­fore those with dual man­dates e.g. Com­munity Coun­cil­lors / Loc­al Author­ity Coun­cil­lors would not be eli­gible for any addi­tion­al top up if they were also attend­ing in that capacity.

d) This more flex­ible approach recog­nises that some­times mem­bers may exper­i­ence a sig­ni­fic­ant addi­tion­al work­load due to a major loc­al issue and that time may go bey­ond what is reas­on­able to expect a mem­ber to under­take without a top up. It also recog­nises that in some com­munit­ies there may not be a func­tion­ing com­munity coun­cil, but that oth­er com­munity organ­isa­tions such as devel­op­ment trusts may be play­ing a crit­ic­al role in rep­res­ent­ing the com­munity voice and this revi­sion recog­nises that too.

2.3. Deduc­tions Provision a) The cur­rent policy allows the Con­vener to impose deduc­tions if a member’s attend­ance falls below a threshold — cur­rently 85%. In prac­tice this is an awk­ward per­cent­age to use as it equates to a day and a half in every ten days and as almost all busi­ness is done in full days and leads to the attend­ance threshold being 80% in prac­tice. It is pro­posed to revise this in the policy to 90% and move to a sys­tem of auto­mat­ic deduc­tions for days missed below this, except in cases of Mem­bers ill­ness or where com­pas­sion­ate leave may apply (as agreed by the Con­vener). Deduc­tions would be applied at the end of the quarter in line with cur­rent policy based on a six month period.

2.4. Extern­al and Intern­al Groups Membership a) Under the cur­rent policy, Board Mem­bers, volun­teer and are then nom­in­ated by the Con­vener to attend vari­ous extern­al and intern­al groups and con­fer­ences. These com­mit­ments are eli­gible for top up alloc­a­tions, which have not been reviewed since 2019.

b) The Resources Com­mit­tee agreed that the cur­rent Con­vener and incom­ing Con­vener would review the list of groups and con­sider the cur­rent mem­ber­ship of these and seek new volun­teers from the Board. It is pro­posed that the full list with up to date top up alloc­a­tions is cir­cu­lated to the Board to volun­teer for and that cur­rent appoint­ments will end unless reappointed.

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Form­al Board Paper 7 Annex 1 8 Septem­ber 2023 Page 4 of 4

c) A full list of new appoint­ments will be made by the incom­ing Con­vener in August 2023 in con­sulta­tion with the cur­rent and incom­ing Deputy Convener.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Com­mit­tee is asked to agree the revi­sions to the Board Fees Policy: a) An increase to the base day alloc­a­tion to 32 days to include com­munity meet­ing attend­ance. b) To remove top up pay­ments for Com­munity Coun­cil meet­ings in line with increased num­ber of base days. c) Increase the attend­ance threshold to 90% and agree auto­mat­ic deduc­tions for non-author­ised absences. d) A full list of new appoint­ments to extern­al and intern­al groups be made in August 2023.