240920Paper1C2030-Q22024

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 10

For dis­cus­sion Title: Cairngorms 2030: Quarter two 2024 (April — June)

	Programme update

Pre­pared by: Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030

Stra­tegic context

1. Cairngorms 2030 (C2030) will inspire people and com­munit­ies in the Nation­al Park to take action and tackle the nature and cli­mate crisis. Bring­ing togeth­er 20 long- term pro­jects on trans­form­ing land­scapes, empower­ing com­munit­ies, rethink­ing how we travel and cham­pi­on­ing wellbeing.

2. The Park Author­ity was awar­ded £12.5 mil­lion by The Nation­al Lot­tery Her­it­age Fund (NLHF) to devel­op and deliv­er Cairngorms 2030 and become the UK’s first net zero nation­al park. The five-year deliv­ery phase com­menced in Janu­ary 2024.

Pur­pose

1. To update the Park Author­ity Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee on the risks under management.

2. This paper presents the status of pro­gramme man­age­ment, includ­ing risk man­age­ment status, based on inform­a­tion in pro­ject reports for the peri­od from March to June 2024, updated where appro­pri­ate to reflect cur­rent pos­i­tion as at the time of writ­ing, and the planned work to end Septem­ber 2024.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Per­form­ance com­mit­tee is asked to dis­cuss: a) Pro­gramme risk level raised from green to amber due to tem­por­ary loss of Sus­trans design fund­ing noti­fic­a­tion. b) Dur­ing the quarter trans­port fund­ing risk (Act­ive Com­munit­ies) was increased from amber to red due to lack of design stage fund­ing. This was after noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that fund­ing for Act­ive Com­munit­ies design pro­jects was cur­rently unavail­able. The lack of fund­ing means over £1 mil­lion design pro­jects can­not pro­ceed as planned dur­ing 2024. To mit­ig­ate this risk a meet­ing was

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 2 of 10 con­vened with Trans­port Scot­land and the Park Author­ity to explore altern­at­ive fund­ing oppor­tun­it­ies. This meet­ing has giv­en con­fid­ence that fund­ing will be secured albeit with a delay which may span quarter three, to Septem­ber 2024, and pos­sibly into quarter four, Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024. The risk was there­fore moved back to amber. The Theme Lead con­tin­ues to dir­ect team on essen­tial pre­par­at­ory work and there­fore fund­ing delays are not crit­ic­al depend­en­cies at this stage. c) Peat­land res­tor­a­tion has iden­ti­fied a poten­tial under­spend in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ due to the loss one major pro­ject. Team is seek­ing new pro­jects at a sim­il­ar scale. d) Scot­tish Forestry has agreed that all wood­land grant schemes in the park can be con­sidered as match fund­ing, which will poten­tially con­trib­ute a sig­ni­fic­ant amount. e) New match fund­ing totalling £116,566 has been secured over the peri­od with an addi­tion­al £20,000 sought through part­ner fund­ing application.

Stra­tegic risk man­age­ment Per­form­ance Dash­board: Pro­gramme level

Per­form­ance Meas­ure	RAG status	Issue/​mitigation
Pro­gramme risk profile	Amber	↑ Risk pro­file increased from green to amber fol­low­ing noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that design stage fund­ing was not avail­able in 2024 / 2025.
Future fund­ing profile	Amber	↑ Risk pro­file was increased from green to amber fol­low­ing noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that design stage fund­ing was not avail­able in 2024 / 2025. Meet­ing organ­ised with Trans­port Scot­land to explore altern­at­ive fund­ing mod­els which has giv­en con­fid­ence that fund­ing will be secured albeit with a delay which may span quarter three, to Septem­ber 2024, and pos­sibly into quarter four, Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024. Theme Lead con­tin­ues to dir­ect team on essen­tial pre­par­at­ory work and there­fore fund­ing delays are not crit­ic­al depend­en­cies at this stage.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Fin­ance: impact on Green Park Author­ity budget man­age­ment Pro­cure­ment Green Staff­ing Green Deliv­ery of Amber Sus­trans fun­ded pro­jects Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 3 of 10 No issues ↑ No issues. New Pro­cure­ment Officer has been recruited by the Park Author­ity. Empower­ment Theme Lead now on mater­nity leave and second­ment cov­er in place. Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion Man­ager has resigned from his post, with replace­ment now in post. Sus­trans / act­ive travel match fund­ing for the pro­gramme is not secured at the val­ues or with­in the timelines required to achieve pro­ject object­ives. Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­ject risk pro­file ini­tially increased from amber to red fol­low­ing noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that design stage fund­ing was not avail­able in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ and pending final res­ol­u­tion of situ­ation noted above. A meet­ing was organ­ised with Trans­port Scot­land to explore altern­at­ive fund­ing mod­els. Fol­low­ing reas­sur­ances received at this meet­ing, the risk around trans­port fund­ing has been reclas­si­fied to amber while con­tinu­ing to show risk escal­a­tion pending receipt of more form­al feed­back. Stake­hold­er engagement

1. Press releases a) Nature pre­scrip­tions now avail­able in Badenoch and Strath­spey (link here) b) Cairn Magazine art­icles, three issues per year, dis­trib­uted to over 12,000 house­holds and all 18,00 res­id­ents in the Nation­al Park (link to latest issue here). i. Page six – Bear­ing fruit ii. Page nine – Demen­tia activ­ity pro­gramme iii. Page nine – Green prescriptions

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 4 of 10 iv. Page 11 – Com­munity catchups

1. Oth­er press activ­ity a) Strath­spey Her­ald — Nat­ur­al ton­ic now being pre­scribed by GPs in Cairngorms Nation­al Park (link here)
2. Social media Sum­mary of con­nec­tions: a) 14 posts across the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Face­book, Ins­tagram, X and Linked­In. i. Spend of £25 on one Face­book boost (Brae­mar com­munity drop in) ii. 43,655 impres­sions iii. Reach of 26,255 iv. 2,908 engage­ments v. 991 likes/​reactions vi. 97 shares vii. 22 com­ments viii. 611 link clicks
3. Volun­teer activ­ity has focussed on two main areas: a) Sup­port­ing the deliv­ery of activ­it­ies tak­ing place as part of the Demen­tia Activ­ity Resource Centre’s work with cli­ents and their fam­il­ies / carers and b) The involve­ment of volun­teers in the Cli­mate Learn­ing and Edu­ca­tion pro­ject. This is sum­mar­ised below: i. Num­ber of volun­teer hours in the last quarter is 106.5 hours ii. Num­ber of new volun­teers recruited in quarter two April to June 2024 is sev­en iii. Total num­ber of new volun­teers to date is 13 volun­teers iv. Total volun­teer ses­sions to date are 28 ses­sions v. Total volun­teer hours to date 128 hours. Sup­port­ing inform­a­tion — theme lead highlights
4. Trans­form­ing land­scapes a) Wood­land expan­sion: Plant­ing of approx­im­ately 1,000 hec­tares of new nat­ive wood­land is pro­gress­ing at two loc­a­tions on Atholl Estate, Perth­shire b) Peat­land res­tor­a­tion: On tar­get to deliv­er close to 1,500 hec­tares this year. Staff­ing and annu­al budget man­age­ment risks escal­ated and mit­ig­ated c) Cairngorms Future Farm­ing: risk rat­ing was amber at the last quarter and is now green.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 5 of 10 d) Cli­mate Resi­li­ent Catch­ment pro­ject remains at amber because of the uncer­tain­ties around the Dalghety Flood­plain ele­ment. Mit­ig­a­tion plan to be pre­pared dur­ing quarter three 2024. e) Nature Net­works pro­ject con­tin­ues to make good pro­cess with Com­munity Deer Lar­der pro­ject with leg­al and per­mis­sion issues resolved. Expres­sion of interest forms and grant awards to be com­pleted in quarter three 2024. This work ties in well with the Park Authority’s devel­op­ment of a red deer cull sub­sidy scheme as part of its core activ­it­ies. f) Dur­ing the quarter there were two pro­jects without a lead officer, Green Fin­ance and Peat­land Res­tor­a­tion. The Peat­land post has since been filled and the Green Fin­ance post will be re-advert­ised in quarter four 2024.

1. Empower­ment a) Cli­mate Learn­ing and Edu­ca­tion: The con­tin­ued engage­ment of four out of the five schools is a test­a­ment to the hard work of the Pro­ject Team and how the pro­ject mod­el fits with school and Edu­ca­tion Scot­land pri­or­it­ies. b) Com­munity Arts and Cul­ture: Pre­par­a­tion work for the next quarter has gone very well with the cre­at­ive com­munity reaf­firm­ing their desire to be involved in shap­ing the future dir­ec­tion of the pro­ject. c) Effect­ive com­munity engage­ment: Sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress with estab­lish­ing a new team, build­ing rela­tion­ships with part­ners, put­ting togeth­er a pro­gramme of sum­mer pub­lic engage­ment events, estab­lish­ing the team pro­cesses, and explor­ing the options for innov­at­ive engage­ment meth­ods. d) Com­munity man­aged cli­mate grants, well­being eco­nomy and cli­mate con­scious com­munit­ies’ pro­jects have been induct­ing the staff, estab­lish­ing pro­cesses, build­ing rela­tion­ships with part­ners, and build­ing the found­a­tions for the work in the next quarter.
2. Trans­port a) Cycle friendly Cairngorms: Meet­ings with rel­ev­ant loc­al com­munit­ies have been worth­while and very likely to devel­op into sup­port for com­munity led loan schemes with loc­a­tions for at least two Com­munity led loan hubs iden­ti­fied. This pro­ject strand has delivered skills ses­sions to two primary schools so far with mul­tiple ses­sions with­in these schools devel­op­ing cyc­ling con­fid­ence for sev­er­al year groups. b) Cycle friendly Cairngorms: The three poten­tial areas have been iden­ti­fied to date for the first ebike five char­ging sta­tions. Work under­taken to determ­ine pre­ferred style of e‑cargo bike for the Nation­al Park Ranger Ser­vice to demon­strate. Pricing

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 6 of 10 or fares to use e‑bike char­ging facil­it­ies and use of loan ser­vices of e‑bikes all need fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion as do the plans for the costs of run­ning the schemes, the main­ten­ance and secur­ity of the bikes. Team work­ing with Cairngorms Trust to con­sider fit with and les­sons learned from the Trust’s Act­ive Cairngorms E‑bike (ACE) pro­ject. c) Act­ive com­munit­ies work faces some uncer­tainty with Sus­trans con­firm­ing design fund­ing is not cur­rently avail­able. The team is now pre­par­ing pro­ject plans and invit­a­tions to tender in pre­par­a­tion for pro­cure­ment in quarter three and in anti­cip­a­tion of fund­ing being unlocked. Delay in fund­ing alloc­a­tions is there­fore cur­rently being mit­ig­ated through ongo­ing staff-led devel­op­ment work of tender spe­cific­a­tions. d) Sus­tain­able trans­port: devel­op­ing the sus­tain­able work­stream has defined the scope of sev­er­al work pack­ages with strands focussed on improv­ing pub­lic trans­port and a feas­ib­il­ity study for demand respons­ive trans­port in one area of the Cairngorms. Part­ner­ship work­ing and influ­en­cing oth­ers is a key aspect of this strand and strong rela­tion­ships are being built with the Region­al Trans­port Part­ner­ship Hitrans as well as Com­munity Trans­port Part­ner­ships. e) Chan­ging travel beha­viours: Oppor­tun­it­ies for col­lab­or­a­tion and pos­it­ive rela­tion­ships built in quarter two will devel­op in quarter three to deliv­er res­ults in rela­tion to con­fid­ence build­ing activ­it­ies. Invest­ment in loc­al ini­ti­at­ives to build on com­munity led walk­ing and cyc­ling con­fid­ence that will lead to beha­viour change is a cru­cial strand to this work­stream. Fur­ther train­ing and devel­op­ment of our own staff and enabling com­munit­ies to build their capa­city and cap­ab­il­it­ies is also cru­cial to build on a sus­tain­able leg­acy for this aspect of the pro­gramme. Work­ing with loc­al com­munity led ini­ti­at­ives to build on their suc­cess and impact has been iden­ti­fied as a pos­it­ive way forward.

1. Health and Well­being a) Well­being eco­nomy: Dis­cus­sions are under­way amongst the Park Authority’s man­age­ment team to determ­ine how best to take this pro­ject for­ward to ensure that bene­fit is cap­tured and repor­ted in a mean­ing­ful way. b) Out­door Demen­tia Resource Centre: Con­tinu­ing interest in the work from part­ners and oth­er organ­isa­tions. This interest will be key in devel­op­ing a sus­tain­able long-term mod­el for the centre. c) Pub­lic Health and the Out­doors: The increased num­ber and vari­ety of refer­rals from GP’s is rais­ing a lot of ques­tions about how the pro­cess can best work. This is enabling an innov­at­ive approach to test­ing pro­to­cols and pro­ced­ures for work­ing in this sec­tor. The increased num­ber of refer­rals is also rais­ing questions

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 7 of 10 about the level of resourcing and capa­city that will be needed as the pro­ject develops.

1. Recruit­ment a) The fol­low­ing posts will be recruited when the Trans­port Scot­land fund­ing chal­lenge has been resolved. i. Gradu­ate Trans­port Plan­ner, band C. b) The Scot­tish Land Com­mis­sion is also recruit­ing for a Green Fin­ance and Com­munity Wealth Officer in part­ner­ship with the Park Author­ity. This post will be advert­ised in quarter four 2024. c) The Rur­al Devel­op­ment and Com­munit­ies Man­ager, Fi McIn­ally, has left her post on mater­nity leave. Eilidh Todd has now taken on the post on a 16-month long second­ment from South of Scot­land Enter­prise. d) The Peat­land Pro­gramme Man­ager, Matt Wat­son, has resigned his post. The post has since been filled through intern­al recruitment.
2. Train­ing a) Staff wel­come and intro­duc­tions day held at Glen­more Out­door Centre. b) Microsoft Pro­ject train­ing delivered. c) Facil­it­a­tion train­ing delivered. d) Risk man­age­ment train­ing delivered e) Mon­it­or­ing and Eval­u­ation work­shops delivered.
3. Sus­trans a) Dur­ing the quarter trans­port fund­ing risk (Act­ive Com­munit­ies) was increased from amber to red due to lack of design stage fund­ing. This was after noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that fund­ing for Act­ive Com­munit­ies design pro­jects was cur­rently unavail­able. The lack of fund­ing means over £1 mil­lion design pro­jects can­not pro­ceed as planned dur­ing 2024. To mit­ig­ate this risk a meet­ing was con­vened with Trans­port Scot­land and the Park Author­ity to explore altern­at­ive fund­ing oppor­tun­it­ies. This meet­ing has giv­en con­fid­ence that fund­ing will be secured albeit with a delay which may span quarter three, to Septem­ber 2024, and pos­sibly into quarter four, Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024. The risk was there­fore moved back to amber. b) The pro­ject risk has been fur­ther mit­ig­ated by the staff team con­tinu­ing to work on pro­cure­ment spe­cific­a­tions which com­prise the cur­rent crit­ic­al path for this project.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 8 of 10

1. Gov­ernance a) NLHF UK Board Chair, Trust­ee, Scot­land CEO and invest­ment leads met with Park Author­ity CEO, C2030 pro­gramme staff and part­ners on 10 May 24 to dis­cuss nature-based solu­tions pro­jects. b) The Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme team will meet with the NLHF mon­it­or­ing con­sult­ants on 15 August 2024. c) The next Pro­gramme Board meet­ing will be held on 06 Septem­ber 2024.
2. Budget and cash flow a) Pro­gramme match fund­ing pos­i­tion is being act­ively mon­itored with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment and oth­er deliv­ery part­ners. b) The Park Author­ity sub­mit­ted and received pay­ment of the NLHF quarter two 2024 fin­an­cial claim. c) The cash flow implic­a­tions of the Sus­trans Scot­land (Act­ive Com­munit­ies) fund­ing notice will be con­firmed in quarter three 2024. The mit­ig­a­tion from Trans­port Scot­land sug­gests the risk status will be lowered from amber to green. d) Peat­land res­tor­a­tion has iden­ti­fied a poten­tial under­spend in ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ due to the loss one major pro­ject. e) Scot­tish Forestry has agreed that all wood­land grant schemes in the park can be con­sidered as match fund­ing. f) Match fund­ing of £71,566 has been secured from Scot­tish Gradu­ate School of Social Sci­ence (SGSSS) and Edin­burgh Uni­ver­sity for the Cairngorms 2030 PhD schol­ar­ship. g) Trans­port team has secured £25,000 new fund­ing from Region­al Trans­port Part­ners, High­land and Island Trans­port Part­ner­ship (HITRANS) (£25,000) and North East Scot­land Trans­port Part­ner­ship (NES­TRANS) (£5,000) to under­take act­ive travel beha­viour change. h) The Nature Net­works pro­ject has secured addi­tion­al £20,000 match fund­ing from the Park Author­ity Con­ser­va­tion Team to cre­ate 8.5 hec­tares of spe­cies rich grass­land pro­gress on Tor­more Estate. i) The Arts and Cul­ture Pro­ject is sub­mit­ting a £20,000 Cre­at­ive Scot­land fund­ing applic­a­tion, which can be used as NLHF match funding.
3. Pro­cure­ment a) A new Pro­cure­ment Officer has been recruited by the Park Author­ity. This is a core Park Author­ity post, who will also help to advise Cairngorms 2030 staff. The Park Author­ity is renew­ing its Pro­cure­ment Strategy which will sup­port the com­munity wealth build­ing and well­being eco­nomy aspir­a­tions of the programme.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 9 of 10 b) The Park Author­ity is now work­ing in part­ner­ship with the Scot­tish Government’s pro­cure­ment team to improve con­tract man­age­ment and oversight.

1. Pro­gramme deliv­ery actions to end Septem­ber 2024. a) 20 July 2024 — C2030 road­show engage­ment event – Tomin­toul b) 30 July 2024 — C2030 road­show engage­ment event – Car­rbridge c) 31 July 2024 — Know­ledge shar­ing: Dum­fries and Gal­lo­way Coun­cil d) 03 Aug 2024 — C2030 road­show engage­ment event – New­ton­more e) 08 Aug 2024 — C2030 road­show engage­ment event – Grant­own Show f) 09 Aug 2024 — Know­ledge shar­ing: North­ern Ire­land Water g) 06 Aug 2024 — Know­ledge shar­ing: South Downs Nation­al Park h) 06 Sept 2024 — Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme board meet­ing i) 01 Sept 2024 — C2030 road­show engage­ment event – Grant­own on Spey j) 02 Sept 2024 — Know­ledge shar­ing: Cairngorms Con­nect Con­fer­ence k) Sept 2024 — Cairngorms 2030 PHD stu­dent­ship starts master’s course l) Sept 2024 — Staff risk register train­ing m) 30 Sept 2024 — Final mon­it­or­ing and eval­u­ation plan
2. Sig­ni­fic­ant Pro­gramme Change Requests a) None
3. Sig­ni­fic­ant Budget Adjust­ments a) Trans­port budgets for Act­ive Com­munit­ies pro­ject to be reviewed by Trans­port Scot­land for quarter three 2024. Conclusions
4. Per­form­ance Over­view and Mat­ters Mer­it­ing Stra­tegic Review a) Pro­gramme risk level raised from green to amber due to tem­por­ary loss of Sus­trans design fund­ing noti­fic­a­tion. b) Dur­ing the quarter trans­port fund­ing risk (Act­ive Com­munit­ies) was increased from amber to red due to lack of design stage fund­ing. This was after noti­fic­a­tion from Sus­trans Scot­land that fund­ing for Act­ive Com­munit­ies design pro­jects was cur­rently unavail­able. The lack of fund­ing means over £1 mil­lion design pro­jects can­not pro­ceed as planned dur­ing 2024. To mit­ig­ate this risk a meet­ing was con­vened with Trans­port Scot­land and the Park Author­ity to explore altern­at­ive fund­ing oppor­tun­it­ies. This meet­ing has giv­en con­fid­ence that fund­ing will be secured albeit with a delay which may span quarter three, to Septem­ber 2024, and pos­sibly into quarter four, Octo­ber to Decem­ber 2024. The risk was therefore

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Paper 1 20 Septem­ber 2024 Page 10 of 10 moved back to amber. Pro­ject man­ager con­tin­ues to dir­ect team on essen­tial pre­par­at­ory work and there­fore fund­ing delays are not crit­ic­al depend­en­cies at this stage. c) Peat­land res­tor­a­tion has iden­ti­fied a poten­tial under­spend due to the loss one pro­ject. Team is act­ively seek­ing new pro­jects at a sim­il­ar scale to replace res­tor­a­tion site. d) Scot­tish Forestry has agreed that all wood­land grant schemes in the park can be con­sidered as match fund­ing, which will poten­tially con­trib­ute a sig­ni­fic­ant amount. e) New match fund­ing totalling £116,566 has been secured over the peri­od with an addi­tion­al £20,000 sought through part­ner fund­ing applic­a­tion. Dav­id Clyne Head of Cairngorms 2030