240322CNPABdPaper5MinutesfromCommitteeMeetingsannex2

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 22 March 2024 Page 1 of 16

Draft Minutes of the Audit and Risk Committee

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey 24 Novem­ber 2023 at 3.00 pm

Present Fiona McLean (Chair) Bill Lob­ban Han­nah Grist Paul Gibb Duncan Miller

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance, and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Tom Reid, Maz­ars Gregory Oduor, Maz­ars Alfred Mugani, Maz­ars Stephanie Hume, Azets Neil Belton, Azets Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Apo­lo­gies Geva Black­ett Pete Cosgrove

Wel­come and introduction

1. Fiona McLean, the Chair, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing. Apo­lo­gies were noted.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meeting

1. The draft minutes of the meet­ing on the 22 Septem­ber 2023 were approved with no amendments.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Action Points

Ref | Action Detail | Who | When | Status

29/10/2021 (Para 8i) | Bring les­sons learned on LEAD­ER back as Agenda item to a future AR Com­mit­tee. | Dav­id Camer­on | Review will come to meet­ing In April 2024 | Open

29/10/2021 (Para 4i) | Com­plete a detailed VAT review. | Louise and Stephanie | Com­plete in next 6 months. delayed due to HH pro­ject | In progress

21/06/23 (Para 20) | To pro­duce timeline for sched­uled board time to devel­op the stra­tegic risk register along­side the new Cor­por­ate Plan | Dav­id Camer­on | To be sched­uled as Board Busi­ness Ses­sion Feb­ru­ary 24 | Open

24/11/23 | Review accounts fig­ure for con­sultan­cies (page 68) | Louise and David | |

Mat­ters arising not covered in agenda.

1. No mat­ters raised.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Fiona Mclean noted interest on item 7 for trans­par­ency. She sits on the Scot­land com­mit­tee of the Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund which funds Her­it­age Horizons.

²⁰²²⁄₂₃ Final Accounts

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions intro­duced the paper that presents the annu­al report and accounts for the year from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 in accord­ance with The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The team was thanked for work done on the doc­u­ment and to get it to this stage. Mem­bers wel­comed the com­pre­hens­ive cov­er­age of fin­ance and per­form­ance set out in the report.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the final accounts.

3. Action none.

Extern­al Audit Update

1. Gregory Oduor, Maz­ars presen­ted the report on the audit of the annu­al report and accounts for ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ pre­pared by Maz­ars. a) A mem­ber asked if the con­sultancy fees as noted on p68 was cor­rect, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate ser­vices will look into this and get back to com­mit­tee. a) It was also noted that oper­a­tion costs have increased due to people being unable to travel in 2022 we would anti­cip­ate this will increase year on year with less home work­ing and more trav­el­ing for meet­ings. b) The Chair thanked the fin­ance team again for all their work as the extern­al aud­it­ors also gave their thanks in good work­ing rela­tion­ships. c) Mem­bers noted that the cyber secur­ity risk is an ongo­ing mat­ter and we need to keep an eye on this import­ant area of work. The extern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions in this area mir­ror the out­stand­ing intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions and updates will be avail­able through pro­gress reports on out­stand­ing intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions. d) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that we have our new Inform­a­tion Man­ager in post who has star­ted our trans­fer to Share­Point. Once this is com­plete, we can look at the wider cyber secur­ity envir­on­ment and IT risk man­age­ment. He assured the Com­mit­tee that this work is firmly on the radar. e) We have also moved our IT net­work onto the Scot­tish Wide Area Net­work in paralel with the Share­Point move. This gives added secur­ity pro­tec­tion to our sys­tems togeth­er with access to man­aged sup­port ser­vices. f) A ques­tion was raised on pro­ject expendit­ure and the fin­ance sys­tem that is used. Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions con­firmed that we use five dif­fer­ent com­pan­ies in organ­ising our intern­al account­ing sys­tems, and we are look­ing at an approach to change and sim­pli­fy this in the future.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the final accounts and man­age­ment rep­res­ent­a­tion letter.

2. Action g) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices to check the con­sultancy fees noted on p68 and get back to committee.

15:49 Tom Reid left the meeting.

Intern­al Audit Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄: Her­it­age Horizons

1. Stephanie Hume, Intern­al Aud­it­or, Azets, provided the over­view of the intern­al audit review of the Park Authority’s gov­ernance and report­ing arrange­ments for the Cairngorms 2030 (Her­it­age Hori­zons) Programme.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) It was noted that the know­ledge exchange on les­sons learned and recom­mend­a­tions on how to take the work for­ward is welcomed.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Review the find­ings of the intern­al audit report. b) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to the intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions for improve­ment to controls.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action: none.

Intern­al Audit Report: Man­age­ment Action Fol­low up ²⁰²²⁄₂₃

1. Stephanie Hume, Intern­al Aud­it­or, Azets presen­ted the paper that provides an over­view of man­age­ment action taken on pre­vi­ous intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions raised and agreed. The fol­low up review work repor­ted here is part of the intern­al audit pro­gramme agreed for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Mem­bers asked for Management’s thoughts on the risks posed by the out­stand­ing audit recom­mend­a­tions where work has not as yet been com­menced or com­pleted. The Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that man­age­ment has been focus­ing on the high­er graded recom­mend­a­tions and some good pro­gress has been made on these high­er risk areas of improve­ment to intern­al con­trols. He was reluct­ant to sug­gest lower graded recom­mend­a­tions should be removed from the list and asso­ci­ated risks accep­ted as these items remained val­id improve­ments to our con­trol sys­tems. The Chair agreed that there was mer­it in retain­ing the lower risk recom­mend­a­tions for the time being. b) The Park has also agreed to out­source busi­ness con­tinu­ity plan review and devel­op­ment as this is a key piece of work that needs to be car­ried for­ward and there isn’t any staff resource cur­rently in place to pro­gress this work. c) A mem­ber asked if some of the com­mon area work could be done between the park and LLT­NP. It was agreed that we do have a good rela­tion­ship with them and we are col­lab­or­at­ing on some activ­ity at the moment and we will look to con­tin­ue that in the future. d) It was agreed that a lot of own­er­ship sits under the Inform­a­tion Man­ager and now that the post is filled many of these things can progress.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) note the pro­gress made by man­age­ment in imple­ment­ing agreed man­age­ment actions; and b) note the revised due dates attrib­uted to actions that remain outstanding.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the intern­al audit report on man­age­ment action fol­low up for ²²⁄₂₃ update.

2. Action none.

Intern­al Audit Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄: Health and Safety

1. Stephanie Hume, Intern­al Aud­it­ors, Azets, presen­ted the paper that presents the intern­al audit review of the Park Authority’s Health and Safety pro­cesses, pro­ced­ures, and intern­al controls.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) The report was wel­comed by officers as they felt pre­vi­ously the pro­ced­ures in place were work­ing smoothly but due to the organ­isa­tion­al changes a review was needed, and they will work through the health and safety com­mit­tee on these recom­mend­a­tions. b) Train­ing was high­lighted and will be con­sidered by Man­age­ment on how best to bal­ance the induc­tion pro­cess with train­ing once in the role and get­ting to grips with the new job. We will be keen to fol­low up the recom­mend­a­tion of reg­u­lar com­mu­nic­a­tion with the line man­agers on how to take this for­ward and pri­or­it­ise it. c) A mem­ber asked if the organ­isa­tion recog­nises pre­vi­ous train­ing for new staff mem­bers join­ing. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices said that we haven’t looked into that, but we can note the point.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Review the find­ings of the intern­al audit report. b) Endorse the man­age­ment responses to the intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions for improve­ment to controls.

2. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

3. Action none.

Intern­al audit pro­gress report

1. Stephanie Hume, Intern­al Aud­it­ors, Azets provided an over­view of the intern­al audit pro­gress report, inform­ing the Com­mit­tee that Azets are on track to deliv­er the annu­al report in April.

2. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

Stra­tegic Risk Management

1. Louise Allen, Head of fin­ance and cor­por­ate oper­a­tions presen­ted the paper, fol­low­ing the review of risk man­age­ment car­ried out by Intern­al Aud­it­ors we have

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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recon­sidered our approach to the man­age­ment of risk and taken the oppor­tun­ity to build on the recom­mend­a­tions made by the Intern­al Auditor.

1. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Mem­bers com­men­ted say­ing that the doc­u­ment is clear and con­cise with good guid­ance on how to man­age these risks. b) It was noted that there are sev­er­al new risks on the register, Head of Fin­ance and Oper­a­tions com­men­ted that this is still a work­ing draft, and we are hop­ing to draw up a final pro­pos­al and bring it back as a draft to the full Board for review and board input pri­or to final­isa­tion and adop­tion. c) Mem­bers sug­ges­ted to include a chro­no­logy where you can see the risks mov­ing down or high­light­ing pro­gress in imple­ment­ing mit­ig­a­tion action. d) It was noted that the draft risk register needs to be focused down onto few­er, key risks.

16: 34 Neil Belton joined the meeting.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Con­sider the revised risk man­age­ment policy, togeth­er with the new format of the risk register. b) Advise on their suit­ab­il­ity for our refreshed approach to risk man­age­ment. the Health and Safety Committee.

1. The Audit & Risk Com­mit­tee agreed the new approach to risk man­age­ment and the format of the register.

2. Action none.

AOCB

1. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices thanked the extern­al audit team along with the fin­ance team for their work on the audit this year.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Date of next meeting

1. Sched­uled date is 19 April 2024.

2. The Com­mit­tee Chair raised a motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion due to com­mer­cial sens­it­iv­ity regard­ing future pro­cure­ment exercises.

3. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 16:48 pm.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Draft Minutes of the Per­form­ance Committee

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey In per­son 8 Decem­ber 2023 at 1.30pm

Present Kenny Deans (Con­vener) John Kirk Chris Beat­tie Ann Ross Steve Mickle­wright Sandy Brem­ner Elean­or Mackintosh

In Attend­ance Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 Colin McCle­an, Head of Land Man­age­ment Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Apo­lo­gies None

Wel­come and introduction

1. The Chair wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Per­form­ance Committee.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Elean­or Mack­in­tosh noted for trans­par­ency a con­nec­tion to item 7 as she is the Board rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Cairngorms Trust Board.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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1. Chris Beat­tie noted for trans­par­ency a con­nec­tion to item 8 as he is the Board rep­res­ent­at­ive on the Cairngorms Nature Strategy Group.

Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meet­ings & Mat­ters Arising

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 9 June 2023 held in per­son, were approved.

2. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meet­ings: i. a) 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022 i. Para 19ii) — Report relat­ing to Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing to be brought to the Com­mit­tee. In Hand ii. b) 9 June 2023 i. Para 16i) The Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change to feed­back to the fest­iv­al steer­ing group mem­bers com­ments on tim­ing. Completed

Vice Chair Nomination

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices, intro­duced the item, invit­ing nom­in­a­tions for Vice Chair of the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee to come for­ward from the com­mit­tee members.

2. The Chair nom­in­ated Steve Mickle­wright as Vice Chair; Chris Beat­tie seconded the nom­in­a­tion. There were no oth­er nom­in­a­tions and Steve Mickle­wright was con­firmed as Vice Chair.

Cairngorms 2030: Q4 2023 (Paper 1)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030, intro­duced the paper which presents an update on Q4 2023 on the Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme and the planned devel­op­ment work to end March 2024.

The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A mem­ber asked with pres­sure on budgets how are we work­ing with oth­er pub­lic part­ners to make sure they can still deliv­er the pro­jects with us. b) Head of Cairngorms 2030 con­firmed that we are work­ing with part­ners to identi­fy their pri­or­it­ies. We are look­ing at match fund­ing and loc­al author­it­ies already have their fund­ing in place for the first year, but we have identified

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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altern­at­ive ideas if this becomes an issue, and we will con­tin­ue to mon­it­or the match fund­ing pos­i­tion closely. c) In the present­a­tion that was giv­en to Nation­al Her­it­age Lot­tery Fund, we recog­nised there is a risk to the pro­gramme over 5 years in terms of secur­ing match fund­ing and we are look­ing at the whole pack­age. We noted that if there are losses in some planned match fund­ing con­tri­bu­tions, we will try and gen­er­ate match fund­ing from oth­er sources. The Pro­gramme has had suc­cess in attract­ing new part­ners and match fund­ing as activ­it­ies pro­gress and there is reas­on to believe this will con­tin­ue into the deliv­ery phase. d) A mem­ber asked what the impact would be on staff and how that would be man­aged. Head of Cairngorms 2030 con­firmed that we have star­ted some of the recruit­ment intern­ally and then we will look at where we are in terms of budget in Janu­ary and if staff move across look at the posts to see if we want to keep that role or look at altern­at­ives. The Seni­or Man­age­ment Team are also devel­op­ing wider oper­a­tion­al plans along­side C2030 pro­ject pro­pos­als to provide an integ­rated approach to change management.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Cairngorms Trust and Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment Update (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Cameon, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices intro­duced an update on the work of the Cairngorms Loc­al Action Group Trust and the col­lect­ive work of the Cairngorms Trust and the Park Author­ity in Com­munity Led Loc­al Devel­op­ment activity.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) A mem­ber con­firmed that it is clear this area is oper­at­ing effect­ively through fund­ing from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to deliv­ery pro­jects led by the Cairngorms Trust. b) It was noted that we have been able to sup­port aspects of the Trust in terms of staff and activ­it­ies. Part of the for­ward plan is look­ing at vol­un­tary giv­ing and mak­ing the Trust more self-sufficient.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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c) Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that we con­tin­ue seek­ing extern­al fund­ing to have enough char­it­able fund­ing for the Trust to run itself and cov­er its own costs. Any dona­tions that are cur­rently made the trust­ees can right­fully claim will be spent 100% on pro­jects as oth­er costs are covered from else­where. d) Mem­bers agreed that there are good mile­stones set out in the draft busi­ness plan.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

Ann Ross left the meet­ing at 2.00pm

Beaver Update (Paper 3)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change, presen­ted the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing Back Beavers Project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and obser­va­tions: a) Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change con­firmed that things have moved on since the paper has been pub­lished, as the licence applic­a­tion has now been accep­ted and approved. b) There has been a lot of engage­ment in the last 6 – 9 months but there are still some people feel­ing they were not engaged with. As a res­ult, there was a farm­er group that formed, and this will provide a good comu­nic­a­tion route going for­ward for early engage­ment.. c) The Park Author­ity per­haps relied to heav­ily on Nation­al Farm­ers’ Uni­on Scot­land (NFUS) to inform farm­ers and officers recog­nise that is one for them to have a think about mov­ing for­ward. d) The farm­ers for­um will have their first meet­ing on 15 Janu­ary, that will look at a lot of issues. Beaver will be the key issue at the first meet­ing. e) The Park Author­ity will estab­lish a Beaver work­ing group focus­ing on mit­ig­a­tion, adapt­a­tion and this will be land man­age­ment driv­en. f) The Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change and his team were con­grat­u­lated by a mem­ber to get the licence approved with an exem­plary applic­a­tion. g) A mem­ber noted that there are a lot of les­sons to be learnt, not every farm­er sits on NFUS as the geo­graph­ic spread is too wide., In future we need more input from farm­ers, to build a com­munity of trust and to look forward.

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Steve Mickle­wright left the meet­ing at 2.09pm.

h) A mem­ber asked if Beaver Bleth­ers was an appro­pri­ate name for some­thing that had such a big impact and stand­ing in the con­sulta­tion pro­cess. i) Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the Beaver Bleth­ers were a suc­cess and there were also oth­er engage­ments such as dir­ect com­mu­nic­a­tions, site vis­its and meet­ings with land man­agers and stake­hold­er groups. j) A mem­ber sug­ges­ted a leaf­let through the door would have been more bene­fi­cial as people would have seen the inform­a­tion. k) Chief Exec­ut­ive Offers con­firmed that the drop-in ses­sions were well atten­ded and that the cairn magazine to every house­hold did con­tain inform­a­tion on the beaver con­sulta­tion and drop-ins but agreed that in future we would be look at a door drop halfway through a con­sulta­tion. l) Mem­bers had a full dis­cus­sion on les­sons learned around con­sulta­tion and engagement.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action Point Arising: none.

AOCB

1. Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices con­firmed that Man­age­ment Team will think about items to dis­cuss in the next year, and we will be back in touch with a draft sched­ule. The meet­ing closed at 2.19pm

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Draft Minutes of the Resource Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity and Vir­tu­ally 26 Janu­ary 2024 09.05am

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

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

Apo­lo­gies None

Minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing for approval

1. The minutes from the meet­ing on the 10 Novem­ber 2023 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered from pre­vi­ous meeting

1. 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. This mat­ter was noted as open.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. No declar­a­tions of interest were made.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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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 month 8 of the ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ fin­an­cial year — 30 Novem­ber 2023.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO, high­lighted that where pos­sible expendit­ure com­mit­ments would be brought for­ward to alle­vi­ate pres­sure for 2024 and help break even for 2023. b) A Mem­ber sought clar­ity on staff­ing and intern­al recruit­ment for the Cairngorms 2030 pro­ject. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment cla­ri­fied that recruit­ment had com­menced, employ­ing five posts through the intern­al recruit­ment round. There was not a default pos­i­tion that roles vacated by intern­al recruit­ment have to be replaced. Each post vacated is con­sidered by the Seni­or Man­age­ment Team. . Of the five vacated pos­i­tions two have not been back filled.

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

3. Update on Budget Pos­i­tion for ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presen­ted the paper which sets out the cur­rent pos­i­tion of the Park Authority’s ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ fin­an­cial year budget devel­op­ment. The paper provided the Com­mit­tee with the oppor­tun­ity to con­sider the over­all budget pos­i­tion togeth­er with the impact of any key assump­tions made in estab­lish­ing budget estim­ates at this point in the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ budget devel­op­ment process.

4. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Dis­cus­sion was had around the increase in cap­it­al budget, the reas­ons for that, and pre­dicted reduc­tion in oper­a­tion­al plan expendit­ure from Grant in Aid. b) Dis­cus­sion was had on the pres­sure that the Cairngorm Nation­al Park Author­ity ranger ser­vice, and part­ner ranger ser­vices, would be facing in the sum­mer of

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Form­al Board Paper 5 Annex 2 22 March 2024 Page 16 of 16

2024 due to poten­tial changes in budgets across part­ners con­trib­ut­ing to ranger pro­vi­sion across the Cairngorms. Mem­bers noted that the cur­rent Park Author­ity budget provided for main­ten­ance of ranger ser­vices over­all at levels equi­val­ent to the cur­rent year.

Recom­mend­a­tions The Resources Com­mit­tee is invited to: a) review the pos­i­tion achieved in devel­op­ment of the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ fin­an­cial year budget and provide any feed­back to officers pri­or to the present­a­tion of the budget pro­pos­als to the full board on 22 March 2024.

1. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

2. Action point arising: none

Health and Safety Com­mit­tee 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 Health and Safety mat­ters generally.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Dis­cus­sion was had on how safety of staff mem­bers who have more remote jobs was ensured. Issues with mobile cov­er­age were raised. This is being mit­ig­ated through a num­ber of actions: mov­ing to a pro­vider with a bet­ter range for those who needed it; GPS track­ing devices; a buddy sys­tem and PeopleSafe (a con­trac­ted mon­it­or­ing ser­vice) escal­a­tion measures.

AOCB None

1. Date of next meet­ing: 17 May 2024