241122Paper2WellbeingEconomyActionPlan

Form­al Board Paper 2 22 Novem­ber 2024 Page 1 of 4

For decision

Title: Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan

Pre­pared by: Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place

Stra­tegic context

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan iden­ti­fies that a Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan will sup­port the deliv­ery of the eco­nom­ic strategy set out in the Part­ner­ship Plan. The concept of a well­being eco­nomy is a hol­ist­ic one that reflects the entirety of work encom­passed by the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan, but the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan is inten­ded to provide a focus for part­ners work and collaboration.

Pur­pose

1. The Board are asked to approve the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan as a work­ing doc­u­ment for the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group and its part­ners on three pri­or­ity areas for the eco­nomy in the Nation­al Park where focussed col­lab­or­a­tion and coordin­a­tion can bet­ter add value to oth­er actions delivered by the Part­ner­ship Plan and Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Board Is asked to:

a) Agree the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan as a work­ing doc­u­ment for the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group.

Stra­tegic policy consideration

1. The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan provides the eco­nom­ic strategy for the Nation­al Park; is based on the prin­ciples of a well­being eco­nomy; and addresses place-based issues across the scope of a well­being eco­nomy. The Part­ner­ship Plan is sup­por­ted by Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies that cov­er the Nation­al Park and the region­al eco­nom­ic part­ner­ships that pre­pare them and are brought togeth­er with fund­ing via Scot­tish and UK gov­ern­ments. Both Part­ner­ship Plan and Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies con­trib­ute to the deliv­ery of the Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Transformation.

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1. While the prin­ciples of a well­being eco­nomy are easy to under­stand, the Board have had two inform­al dis­cus­sions over the past year that explored the ten­sion between the the­ory of a hol­ist­ic approach to the eco­nomy and the chal­lenge of trans­lat­ing that to prac­tic­al work in the Nation­al Park. In prac­tice, dif­fer­ent organ­isa­tions, busi­ness and sec­tors require focus on spe­cif­ic action to deliv­er change and a well­being eco­nomy action plan for the Nation­al Park needs to provide focus and pri­or­it­isa­tion of action that is with­in con­trol of partners.

Stake­hold­er engagement

1. The approach to a well­being eco­nomy action plan was dis­cussed by the Cairngorms Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group and by a smal­ler well­being eco­nomy work­ing sub-group dur­ing 2023. While mem­bers of the steer­ing group found it easy to agree with the prin­ciples, the all-encom­passing approach seemed to draw organ­isa­tions and indi­vidu­als towards areas of work that were out­side their expert­ise, remit or exper­i­ence and dis­tract from the issues they had the power to influ­ence positively.

2. The well­being eco­nomy sub group con­cluded that giv­en the scope and range of action already being addressed through part­ners’ agreed work across the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies; the con­strained pub­lic sec­tor resources and uncer­tain annu­al budgets; that a well­being eco­nomy action plan should focus on a few areas where part­ners on the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group could add value to exist­ing work, improv­ing or refin­ing deliv­ery on a few pri­or­it­ised areas of work.

Stra­tegic risk management

1. The final­isa­tion of a Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan and focus for the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group will sup­port deliv­ery of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and should lead to more effi­cient use of part­ner resources. Unlike some oth­er action plans pre­pared by the Nation­al Park Author­ity, the Park Author­ity does not bring sig­ni­fic­ant resource or dir­ect power to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, which is dom­in­ated by the nation­al enter­prise and skills devel­op­ment agen­cies and loc­al author­it­ies, all of whom have shrink­ing budgets. Bring­ing part­ners togeth­er to make bet­ter use of those shrink­ing budgets or identi­fy oth­er sources of fund­ing will bene­fit everyone.

Implic­a­tions

1. The final­isa­tion of the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan as a work­ing doc­u­ment does not have a sig­ni­fic­ant resource implic­a­tion for the Park Author­ity. The Park Authority

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will con­tin­ue to facil­it­ate meet­ings of the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group, to col­late inform­a­tion on deliv­ery of the Part­ner­ship Plan and to sup­port the deliv­ery of work by oth­er organisations.

1. The Park Authority’s fin­an­cial sup­port to oth­er deliv­ery organ­isa­tions (Cairngorms Busi­ness Part­ner­ship as des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing organ­isa­tion and cham­ber of com­merce for the Cairngorms, Grow­Biz provid­ing tar­geted sup­port to small and start-up busi­nesses, and Coun­tryside Learn­ing Scot­land provid­ing path­ways for young people to rur­al employ­ment, as well as Vol­un­tary Action Badenoch and Strath­spey, Marr Area Part­ner­ship and Tomin­toul and Glen­liv­et Devel­op­ment Trust who sup­port com­munity devel­op­ment and social enter­prise) is not dir­ectly affected by the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan, but could be affected by oth­er budget pres­sures in future.

2. The Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan is inten­ded to be a work­ing doc­u­ment for the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group, to make it easy for part­ners to col­lab­or­ate and focus avail­able resource without duplic­at­ing effort. The Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan should be presen­ted in the con­text of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and its over­all eco­nom­ic strategy.

Suc­cess measures

1. It is pro­posed that Board will receive an annu­al report on deliv­ery of the Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan, the work that has happened as a res­ult of it and the added value or spe­cif­ic value it has brought to the Nation­al Park, along­side any wider review of the con­tri­bu­tion of oth­er actions in the Part­ner­ship Plan or Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies. In a more prac­tic­al sense, suc­cess will be new col­lab­or­at­ive pro­jects between part­ners to improve tar­geted busi­ness sup­port, deliv­er skills and train­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for the Nation­al Park and sup­port com­munity enter­prise in it.

Sup­port­ing Information

1. A draft Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan is attached as Annex 1. The draft plan sets out the prin­ciples of a well­being eco­nomy, the roles of the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies and the chal­lenge of cre­at­ing an action plan that does not simply duplic­ate those strategies that have estab­lished deliv­ery struc­tures and action plans themselves.

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1. The dia­gram on the fol­low­ing page is an attempt to show the rela­tion­ship between the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan and Region­al Eco­nom­ic Strategies which encom­pass stra­tegic and struc­tur­al issues across all facets of a well­being eco­nomy, often delivered through sep­ar­ate action plans, legis­lat­ive frame­works and part­ner­ships, and the pro­posed well­being eco­nomy action plan that has a much tight­er focus to help part­ners col­lab­or­ate in ways that deliv­er their organ­isa­tion­al priorities.

Figure1. Well­being Eco­nomy Action Plan and wider well­being eco­nomy support.

1. Although we have not had an action plan to provide that focus dur­ing past year, in prac­tice part­ners have been look­ing for those oppor­tun­it­ies to deliv­er bet­ter shared work and the ​‘Your Future Here’ careers event held in Septem­ber this year is an example of the type of col­lab­or­at­ive work that the action plan will sup­port, involving most mem­ber organ­isa­tions of the Eco­nom­ic Steer­ing Group in its plan­ning and delivery.

Gav­in Miles 07 Novem­ber 2024 gavinmiles@​cairngorms.​co.​uk