Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 1 22 March 2024 Page 1 of 11

Draft Minutes of the Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey Vir­tu­al 3 Novem­ber 2023 at 9.30am

Present Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Kenny Deans Rus­sell Jones

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Oliv­er Dav­is, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Fiona McLean

Wel­come and introduction

1. Sandy Brem­ner, Board Con­vener wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Gov­ernance Committee.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None

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Minutes and Note of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the 18 August 2023 meet­ing, held via video con­fer­en­cing, were approved with no amendments.

2. Action points from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: a) At Para 19a In Hand – Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Induc­tion train­ing to be up to exist­ing Board Mem­bers as a refresh­er. b) At Para 19b In Hand – Second Board Effect­ive­ness ses­sion with the Board and Seni­or Staff facil­it­ated by Dav­id Robertson of Wild­Think­ing to be sched­uled for May 2023.

    20 January meeting
   

   c) At Para 9i Review our Gov­ernance Respons­ib­il­ity Frame­work. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices to bring a paper to a future meet­ing to recon­sider. In Pro­gress – this is now com­bined with the intern­al audit work on assur­ance map­ping and will be brought back to Com­mit­tee at a later date. d) At Para 12i Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices to draft a fol­low up paper required to set out poten­tial options for the Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee. Closed – this mat­ter is linked to the work on gov­ernance and assur­ance arrange­ments covered in the pre­vi­ous action above. e) At Para 15i Clerks to Board (Janu­ary / Feb­ru­ary 2024): agenda item for review of plan­ning com­mit­tee arrange­ments. Open f) At para 19ii Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions to look at com­mu­nic­a­tion mes­saging around appro­pri­ate places to take bikes link­ing to Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices fol­low up (24(ii)). — Closed: liais­on with moun­tain bike groups ongo­ing led through Caper­cail­lie Project.

    18 August meeting
   

   g) At para 10i Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions will feed­back to the equal­it­ies advis­ory pan­el on work com­pleted. Closed

3. Actions: None.

Com­mu­nic­a­tions update (Paper 1)

1. Oliv­er Dav­ies, Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions presen­ted an update of cur­rent com­mu­nic­a­tions activ­ity and out­lined a num­ber of key pri­or­it­ies for the next quarter.

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1. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A mem­ber asked if there had been any sig­ni­fic­ant changes reques­ted by tar­get audi­ences dur­ing work­shops around devel­op­ing a new web­site for the Nation­al Park. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions respon­ded that fol­low­ing feed­back there would now be two web­sites, one for inform­a­tion and the oth­er more inspir­a­tion­al, cel­eb­rat­ing the Nation­al Park and that it is a liv­ing, work­ing land­scape. b) A mem­ber quer­ied if the poem being com­mis­sioned to cel­eb­rate the 20^th anniversary of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park would reflect the real­ity of what it is like to live and work here. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions respon­ded that the poet has had as var­ied a group as pos­sible to speak to in gain­ing inspir­a­tion for the poem, so that he can give a true reflec­tion of what it is like to live and work here. c) A mem­ber asked what learn­ing had been taken from the beaver engage­ment pro­cess, due to recent neg­at­ive com­ments by some farm­ers around beaver rein­tro­duc­tion. Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions respon­ded that a lot of work went into enga­ging with the Nation­al Farm­ers’ Uni­on of Scot­land and spe­cif­ic farm­ers along with spe­cif­ic events for farm­ers. The volume and qual­ity of engage­ment that was car­ried out sug­gests that the Park engaged well with this group on this issue.

2. The Con­vener con­cluded the dis­cus­sion and thanked the Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions for the update.

3. Actions: none

Annu­al Report (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, presen­ted the Paper which out­lined the work of the Com­mit­tee for peri­od August 2022 to Novem­ber 2023.

2. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: d) Mem­bers raised that the mem­ber­ship of the Com­mit­tee was new and there­fore can­not veri­fy the accur­acy of the report. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO respon­ded that he would change the report remov­ing the more eval­u­at­ive sec­tions, leav­ing a more fac­tu­al reflec­tion of the work of the Com­mit­tee. Mem­bers agreed with this approach.

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1. The Com­mit­tee approved the paper with the con­di­tion that the pro­posed eval­u­at­ive sec­tions would be removed.

AOCB

1. Grant Moir, CEO, informed the Com­mit­tee of the upcom­ing Form­al Board agenda.

Date of Next meet­ing: 19 Janu­ary 2024

Meet­ing con­cluded at 10.02am

The con­vener put for­ward a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion due to leg­al priv­ilege Elean­or Mack­in­tosh seconded this motion

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Minutes of the Resource Com­mit­tee Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and Vir­tu­ally 10 Novem­ber 2023 2.30pm

Present Rus­sell Jones (Chair) Sandy Brem­ner (Board Con­vener) Xan­der McDade Derek Ross Han­nah Grist Lauren McCallum

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies None

Minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing for approval

1. The minutes from the meet­ing on the 11 August 2023 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered from pre­vi­ous meeting

1. No mat­ters arising

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. No declar­a­tions of interest were made.

Vot­ing of Com­mit­tee Vice Chair

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1. Rus­sell Jones nom­in­ated Lauren Mac­Cal­lum to become Vice Chair of the Resources Com­mit­tee, seconded by Sandy Brem­ner. Lauren Mac­Cal­lum accep­ted the nomination.

Budget Mon­it­or­ing

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions, presen­ted the paper which sets out an over­view of the Park Authority’s budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion at the end of the second quarter of the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ fin­an­cial year and high­lighted the fol­low­ing: a) Sig­ni­fic­ant under­spend against our phased budget in terms of expendit­ure, which con­tin­ues the pat­ter of expendit­ure found in pre­vi­ous years. b) Pres­sure on staff costs due to less staff turnover and vacancy sav­ings than anti­cip­ated. c) Oper­a­tion­al plan show­ing com­mit­ted spend of around £3.3 mil­lion as of the end of Octo­ber, around half of the annu­al budget. d) Likely under­spend in the peat­land res­tor­a­tion pro­gramme – the fore­cast under­spend will be con­firmed with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment by the end of the cal­en­dar year to allow for any changes in fund­ing alloc­a­tions to be managed.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) The Chair of the Resources Com­mit­tee ques­tioned if the under­spend on peat­land res­tor­a­tion can be car­ried for­ward to the next fin­an­cial year. The Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions respon­ded that Officers were in the pro­cess of ask­ing Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment on this point.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Resources Com­mit­tee was asked to: a) Con­sider the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action point arising: none

2022/2023 Estim­ate Outturn

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presen­ted the paper giv­ing an update on the estim­ated out­turn pos­i­tion for the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ fin­an­cial year, informing

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the Com­mit­tee that the fig­ures in this paper remain sub­ject to extern­al audit and any sig­ni­fic­ant changes will be presen­ted to the Com­mit­tee in Janu­ary 2024.

1. The Resources Com­mit­tee wel­comed the update and had no com­ments on the paper.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Resources Com­mit­tee was asked to: a) Con­sider the estim­ated out­turn pos­i­tion for the ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ fin­an­cial year

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action point arising: none

Resources Com­mit­tee annu­al report to board

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive presen­ted the draft Annu­al Report of the Resources Com­mit­tee to the Board.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) A Mem­ber raised that they would like it to be reflec­ted that the Com­mit­tee had delt with items of busi­ness over the year, includ­ing the pay nego­ti­ations, which had a sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the Author­ity and which Staff and Mem­bers worked hard on. The Mem­ber added that it would be good to show the Board the due dili­gence taken and there­fore should be reflec­ted in the report. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices & Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive respon­ded that he would be happy to draw out weight of some of the mat­ters in the report and the due dili­gence taken by Members.

Recom­mend­a­tions

The Com­mit­tee was asked to: a) Review the draft Annu­al Report to the Board and agree any amend­ments pri­or to sub­mis­sion to the board in November.

1. The Com­mit­tee agreed to the officer’s recommendations.

2. Action Point Arising: none

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Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um Minutes

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment, intro­duced this paper and noted that this is a stand­ard item that comes to the Com­mit­tee to provide over­sight of the meet­ing and of our engage­ment with staff.

2. Minutes were noted no fur­ther discussions/​actions.

Health & Safety Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Minutes

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment, intro­duced this paper, explain­ing that the Board have over­all respons­ib­il­ity for the health and safety of staff, and it was there­fore con­sidered appro­pri­ate for them to have over­sight of the H&SC meet­ing minutes.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the minutes and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) The Chair asked wheth­er there was a defib­ril­lat­or in the Nation­al Park Author­ity Office. The Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment respon­ded that while there is one out­side the Co-Oper­at­ive in Grant­own, there was not a defib­ril­lat­or in the build­ing but she would be happy to look into get­ting one as there was appet­ite for that with­in the Committee.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the Minutes from the Health and Safety Committee.

4. Action Point Arising: i. The Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment to look into pur­chas­ing a defib­ril­lat­or to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Grant­own Office and present this to the Resources Committee.

AOCB

None

1. Date of next meet­ing: 26 Janu­ary 2024 Motion to move onto con­fid­en­tial ses­sion for reas­on of deal­ing with per­son­al and con­fid­en­tial data

Pub­lic ses­sion closed at 2.46pm

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Minutes of the Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee Meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey hybrid 9 Feb­ru­ary 2024 at 3.15pm

Present Sandy Brem­ner (Con­vener) Elean­or Mack­in­tosh (Deputy Con­vener) Fiona McLean Rus­sell Jones Chris Beattie

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO James Ade, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Kenny Deans

Wel­come and introduction

1. Sandy Brem­ner, Board Con­vener, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Gov­ernance Committee.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None

Minutes and Note of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the 3 Novem­ber 2023 meet­ing, held via video con­fer­en­cing, were approved with no amendments.

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1. Action points from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: a) At Para 19a In Hand – Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Induc­tion train­ing to be up to exist­ing Board Mem­bers as a refresh­er. b) At Para 19b In Hand – Second Board Effect­ive­ness ses­sion with the Board and Seni­or Staff facil­it­ated by Dav­id Robertson of Wild­Think­ing to be sched­uled for May 2024.

    20 January meeting
   

   c) At Para 9i Review our Gov­ernance Respons­ib­il­ity Frame­work. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices to bring a paper to a future meet­ing to recon­sider. In Pro­gress – this is now com­bined with the intern­al audit work on assur­ance map­ping and will be brought back to Com­mit­tee at a later date. d) At Para 15i Clerks to Board (Janu­ary / Feb­ru­ary 2024): agenda item for review of plan­ning com­mit­tee arrange­ments. Open

2. Actions: None.

Applic­a­tion of Meet­ing Sub­sti­tutes Policy to Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee (Paper 1)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO presen­ted a paper that con­sidered the applic­a­tion of the policy to allow sub­sti­tutes for meet­ings of the Gov­ernance Committee.

2. The Gov­ernance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Due to the pos­i­tion of Deputy Con­vener and Deputy Plan­ning Con­vener being filled by the same Board Mem­ber, a dis­cus­sion was had on wheth­er there should be an option oth­er Mem­bers be able to act as sub­sti­tutes for these pos­i­tions. How­ever, it was agreed that as this situ­ation would only be for a lim­ited peri­od of time, this would not be necessary.

3. The Com­mit­tee unan­im­ously agreed to the paper’s recom­mend­a­tions, allow­ing for Deputy Chairs of Com­mit­tees or Deputy Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener to stand in for the respect­ive Com­mit­tee Chair / Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Con­vener should they be unavail­able for a meet­ing and thanked the Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions for the update. Actions: fol­low up to Board meet­ing to adopt change

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AOCB

1. None

Date of Next meet­ing: 1 March 2024

Meet­ing con­cluded at 3.22pm

The con­vener put for­ward a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion due to leg­al priv­ilege. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh seconded this motion.