Minutes of the Per­form­ance Committee

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own on Spey

Hybrid

14 June 2024 at 1.00pm

Present

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

In Attend­ance

Grant Moir, CEO Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030 Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or for Nature and Cli­mate Change Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices Gav­in Miles, Dir­ect­or of Plan­ning and Place Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to Board

Apo­lo­gies

None

Wel­come and introduction

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

Minutes of Pre­vi­ous Meetings

1. The minutes of the pre­vi­ous meet­ing, 26 April 2024 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters Arising

1. Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings:

   a) 11 Feb­ru­ary 2022

   i. Item 3.13a1 an accur­ate record of Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ will be brought to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in due course as extern­al aud­it­ors are still work­ing through records.

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. None

13.02pm Ann Ross joined the meeting.

Bring back beaver’s pro­ject (Paper 1)

1. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion, intro­duced the paper which presents the latest deliv­ery updates on the Bring­ing back beaver’s project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) Board mem­bers ques­tioned how often the board and pub­lic were get­ting updates on the beavers’ move­ments. Sarah Hen­shall, Head of Con­ser­va­tion reas­sured the com­mit­tee that there was a mon­it­or­ing group in place to mon­it­or when beavers are mov­ing, and the Beaver Pro­ject Man­ager would inform landown­ers imme­di­ately if beavers were on their land.

   b) Ques­tions were raised about the impact of staff time and costs for this pro­ject and how this is being man­aged. The com­mit­tee were reas­sured that this has only been flagged as a poten­tial risk in the future, how­ever, rangers, volun­teers and future release site part­ners will help.

   c) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the longer-term plan for beavers. The Head of Con­ser­va­tion noted that they have a five-year license, solely focused on the Spey catchment.

   d) Board mem­bers ques­tioned what the beaver pop­u­la­tion is likely to reach and how this would be man­aged. The Head of Con­ser­va­tion con­firmed that it was hard to give a fixed num­ber, how­ever, NatureScot have car­ried out mod­el­ling frame­work to try and estab­lish how the pop­u­la­tion is likely to grow over time, based on estab­lished territories.

   e) A board mem­ber asked if beavers leave the Nation­al Park, who would be respons­ible for them. Head of Con­ser­va­tion high­lighted that we want the beaver pop­u­la­tion to expand with­in the catch­ment. There is a Nation­al Beaver Man­age­ment and Mit­ig­a­tion frame­work that NatureScot imple­ment that sets out how beaver’s will be man­aged out with the bound­ar­ies of the Nation­al Park.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: none.

Cairngorms 2030: Q1 2024 (Jan – Mar) (Paper 2)

1. Dav­id Clyne, Head of Cairngorms 2030, intro­duced the paper which updates the Park Author­ity Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee on the risks under man­age­ment with­in the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme. This paper presents the peri­od from Janu­ary to March 2024 and the planned work to the end of June 2024.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) Grant Moir, CEO, added a com­ment related to the trans­port aspect; he will be meet­ing with Bet­tina Size­land, Dir­ect­or in Trans­port Scot­land and Dave Signorini, Dir­ect­or of Envir­on­ment and Forestry, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) on 27 June to dis­cuss Cairngorms 2030 funding.

   b) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the con­nectiv­ity of cycle paths between loc­a­tions in Badenoch and Strath­spey ask­ing when these will be going ahead. The CEO stated that routes and cost­ings are in place, we are wait­ing for con­firm­a­tion on a start date. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vice, stated that Dul­nain Bridge and Grant­own on Spey are com­munity led pro­jects, cur­rently at stage four, the Park Author­ity will pick up from stage five.

   c) Com­ments were made on the inform­a­tion that has been repor­ted, with mem­bers feel­ing it was dated. The CEO stated that Cairngorms 2030 has been divided into three themes to come to com­mit­tee in rota­tion: Trans­port, Com­munity and Nature themes will be presen­ted which will provide a for­ward look of plans with­in each theme. Board mem­bers high­lighted that due to pub­lic per­cep­tion, they would need to have an insight into what’s com­ing up. The CEO respon­ded to say that they will share a for­ward look with the board, giv­ing mem­bers more of an insight. The Deputy CEO emphas­ised the import­ance of scru­tiny of pro­gramme deliv­ery, which formed the basis of the terms of ref­er­ence for the Com­mit­tee and ensured

   d) appro­pri­ate scru­tiny was giv­en to pro­gramme man­age­ment, risk and resource implic­a­tions, and deliv­ery. the Chair noted that a meet­ing had been arranged with the Deputy CEO and Head of Cairngorms 2030 Pro­gramme to agree the future cov­er­age of the pro­gramme by this Com­mit­tee. Mem­bers sup­por­ted this action.

   e) A board mem­ber raised a ques­tion regard­ing budget that was approved but deferred for a year. The CEO stated that SG has the same amount of act­ive travel budget between Trans­port Scot­land and Sus­trans: it’s who admin­is­ters this budget and alloc­a­tion pro­cesses that have changed. How­ever, the Park Author­ity is look­ing to secure funds for this year for the design phase of the pro­ject. This will be dis­cussed at the meet­ing on 27 June with Trans­port Scot­land referred to earlier.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising:

   i. Chair of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee and Deputy CEO to dis­cuss and make a plan for how best to share with the Board Mem­bers the for­ward look doc­u­ment to allow them to see what’s com­ing up.

Deliv­ery of stat­utory duties as con­ferred by the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003 (Paper 3)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel presen­ted the paper which updates mem­bers on deliv­ery of the Park Author­it­ies stat­utory duties under the Land Reform (Scot­land) Act 2003. While activ­ity is delivered by officers with some report­ing to the Loc­al Out­door Access For­um, as a stat­utory func­tion it is also con­sidered appro­pri­ate that there is an ele­ment of Board over­sight and scru­tiny of related casework.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) A board mem­ber raised a ques­tion of wheth­er com­mit­tee gets sight of case­loads and issues on an annu­al basis. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices noted that they plan to bring over­view inform­a­tion to the com­mit­tee such as numer­ic­al ana­lys­is of cases and sum­mar­ies of types of cases dealt with.

   b) Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices gave the com­mit­tee an update on the access to the area of the Spey, and the report they had under­taken in Autum. This has now been recon­sidered and will go back out to gath­er more inform­a­tion over the com­ing weeks.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: none

Cairngorms and Glen­more Strategy 2016 (Paper 4)

1. Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel presen­ted the paper which updates mem­bers on deliv­ery of the actions con­tained in the 2016 strategy and to con­sider the role the Park Author­ity should take to lead on coordin­ated deliv­ery of actions in the Cairngorm and Glen­more area in future.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) A board mem­ber ques­tioned the slow pro­gress on park­ing man­age­ment between The High­land Coun­cil (THC) and Forestry and Land Scot­land (FLS). Colin Simpson, Head of Vis­it­or Ser­vices and Act­ive Travel stated that they would use a hol­ist­ic solu­tion such as bar­ri­ers and park­ing facil­it­ies. There has been dis­cus­sion about cla­ri­fy­ing leg­al and man­age­ment respons­ib­il­it­ies on the mat­ter and the leg­al times­cales for res­ol­u­tion of ques­tions has slowed the pro­cess down.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: none

Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Pro­ject (Paper 5)

1. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change presen­ted the paper which presents the final report on the Cairngorms Caper­cail­lie Project.

2. The Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the update and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) A board mem­ber com­men­ted on the pro­ject receiv­ing cri­ti­cism due to lack of sig­nage for those with dogs not on leads and hav­ing received com­ments from people who ended up being approached by the police. Andy Ford, Dir­ect­or of

   b) Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that the police may have stopped people regard­ing the Lek it Be cam­paign as they sup­por­ted this in the early morn­ings to stop people dis­turb­ing the Leks. There was also Peer to Peer work­ing in the dog walk­ing com­munity, and this is pos­sibly where the con­flict or mis­com­mu­nic­a­tion comes from.

   c) Board mem­bers felt there are high­er num­bers of ticks in the area. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change, respon­ded by stat­ing that ticks and pred­at­ors have been dis­cussed as part of this pro­ject and this goes into the Leg­acy Plan. Grant Moir, CEO men­tioned that we need to con­tin­ue to inform the pub­lic on tick risks, so they are aware how to check them­selves and what to look out for.

   d) Board mem­bers raised ques­tions about the capa­city to keep the Caper­cail­lie mes­sage out there and what is included in the Leg­acy Plan. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change stated that the Leg­acy Plan is the Caper­cail­lie Emer­gency Plan, this will be dis­trib­uted at the Form­al Board in June.

   e) A board mem­ber men­tioned that they feel there has been a lot of money spent on Caper­cail­lie with little res­ult. Dir­ect­or of Nature and Cli­mate Change noted that fund­ing strategy is laid out in the emer­gency plan, there is a sig­ni­fic­ant price tag, but they put pub­lic money into those actions with mul­tiple bene­fits and long-term benefits.

3. The Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action Point Arising: None

AOCB

1. Date of net meet­ing 20 Septem­ber 2024

The meet­ing closed at 14.19pm

Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee Action Points:

ACTION	Status
Draft Minutes – 14 June 2024
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
11 Feb­ru­ary 2022	In hand
ii. Item 3.13a1 an accur­ate record of Vis­it Scot­land fund­ing 2023⁄24 will be brought to the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee in due course as extern­al aud­it­ors are still work­ing through records.
Paper 2 — Cairngorms 2030: Q1 2024 (Jan – Mar)
At para 9c
iii. Chair of Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee and Deputy CEO, Dav­id Camer­on to dis­cuss and make a plan for how best to share with the Board Mem­bers the for­ward look doc­u­ment to allow them to see what’s com­ing up.

Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee Minutes

Held Online on 21 June 2024

Present:

Fiona McLean (Chair) Geva Black­ett Peter Cos­grove (Deputy Chair) Paul Gibb Bill Lob­ban Duncan Miller

In Attend­ance

Dav­id Camer­on, Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Deputy CEO Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Gregory Oduor, Maz­ars Stephanie Hume, Azets Eliza­beth Young, Azets Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Apo­lo­gies:

Grant Moir, CEO

Wel­come and introduction

1. Fiona McLean, the Chair wel­comed every­one to the meeting.

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meeting

1. The draft minutes of the meet­ing on the 19 April 2024 were approved with no amendments.

Ref	Action Detail	Who	When	Status
24/11/23	Review accounts fig­ure for con­sultan­cies (page 68)	Louise and David	Look when final­ise the 23⁄24 accounts, high­light to the Com­mit­tee at that point. Reviewed and cor­rec­ted the fig­ure by Maz­ars, will come with draft accounts.	Open

Mat­ters arising not covered in agenda

1. No mat­ters raised

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. Peter Cos­grove, for trans­par­ency high­lighted he is a dir­ect­or of a busi­ness men­tioned in Paper 1, Alba Ecology.

2. Motion to move to a con­fid­en­tial meet­ing for reas­ons of com­mer­cial confidentiality.

3. Pub­lic ses­sion stopped at 10.05am

4. Pub­lic ses­sion resumed at 11.26am

Intern­al Audit Annu­al Report ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ (Paper 3)

1. Eliza­beth Young, Intern­al aud­it­ors from Azets, presen­ted the aud­it­ors annu­al report sum­mar­ising the con­clu­sions and key find­ings from the intern­al audit work under­taken at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity dur­ing the year ended 31 March 2024, includ­ing the Intern­al Auditor’s over­all opin­ion on Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s intern­al con­trol system.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   e) The Chair of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee thanked the team at Azets for all the work they have done over the year.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Actions: None.

Extern­al Audit Update (Paper 4)

1. Gregory Oduor, Extern­al Aud­it­or from Maz­ars, presen­ted the extern­al audit update sum­mar­ising the pro­gress of our ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ audit as of 12 June 2024.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   f) Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices noted that the pro­gress and work done by the team has been good and wel­comed the good work­ing rela­tion­ships between Maz­ars and the fin­ance team.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Actions: None.

Pro­cure­ment Action Plan (Paper 5)

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presents an action plan towards improve­ment of the Park Authority’s pro­cure­ment pro­cesses, pro­ced­ures and intern­al con­trols. It has been developed in response to the Intern­al Audit review of pro­cure­ment car­ried out by Azets as part of the approved ²⁰²³⁄₂₄ audit programme.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) A board mem­ber praised that actions are being taken before the pro­cure­ment officer pos­i­tion is filled.

   b) Clar­ity was sought with regards to attach­ing the report to the intern­al audit action plan. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices reques­ted the action plan be adop­ted as a reg­u­lar mon­it­or­ing tool, incor­por­at­ing agreed actions from the report rather than includ­ing the report in entirety, where officers will report to the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee monthly then bring this back to the com­mit­tee with an update on the actions.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action arising:

   i. Monthly update on pro­gress to be provided by officers to the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Gov­ernance Actions: Code of Con­duct (Paper 6)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Head of Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices, presen­ted an update to the Com­mit­tee on mat­ters relat­ing to gov­ernance and oper­a­tion of the Code of Con­duct with­in the Park Author­ity. The paper sup­ports con­sid­er­a­tion by the Com­mit­tee of any for­ward actions which may be taken with­in the Park Authority.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) Chair of the com­mit­tee sought clar­ity regard­ing para­graph 15. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices cla­ri­fied that there was recog­ni­tion that the dis­charge of code of con­duct respons­ib­il­it­ies lies entirely with each indi­vidu­al board mem­ber. The respons­ib­il­ity how­ever lies with a Chair or Con­vener to con­sider the poten­tial impacts of those per­son­al decisions made by mem­bers when they chair a meet­ing, if they feel a pos­i­tion taken by a mem­ber is ques­tion­able. The action referred to in this para­graph is there­fore to con­sider wheth­er guid­ance may be developed and / or amend­ments pro­posed to Stand­ing Orders to help guide responses in such circumstances.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Actions: None

Risk Registers (Paper 7)

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presen­ted a paper sup­port­ing a review by the Com­mit­tee of the Park Authority’s stra­tegic risk man­age­ment position.

2. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the report and made the fol­low­ing com­ments and observations:

   a) Chair of the com­mit­tee com­men­ted that fol­low­ing the aud­it­ors’ recom­mend­a­tions, pro­cure­ment should be added as the 12^th risk on the stra­tegic risk register for the fore­see­able future. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices stated that they would adapt the stra­tegic risk register appropriately.

   b) It was noted that the risk register for the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme sits with the Per­form­ance Com­mit­tee and the Pro­gramme Board. Any obser­va­tions by the Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee will be fed into these gov­ernance mech­an­isms, rather than this Com­mit­tee mak­ing dir­ect amend­ments to the document.

   c) Chair of the Com­mit­tee noted that on the risk register for the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, Risk 7, impact descrip­tion was more of an out­come than a descrip­tion, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices agreed and con­firmed that word­ing will be reviewed.

   d) Chair of the Com­mit­tee sug­ges­ted that on the risk register for the Cairngorms 2030 pro­gramme, Risk 4, pro­cure­ment stand­ards prob­ab­il­ity level should be increased as cur­rently sit­ting at 2. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices agreed that this will be reviewed, while high­light­ing that there were clear instruc­tions across the pro­gramme to ensure pro­cure­ment activ­ity was con­duc­ted through Pub­lic Con­tracts Scot­land which does under­pin achiev­ing standards.

3. The Audit and Risk Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Actions:

   i. Add pro­cure­ment on the stra­tegic risk register. ii. Update word­ing on C2030 risk num­ber 7, impact descrip­tion. iii. Review and amend (as appro­pri­ate) the prob­ab­il­ity score for C2030 risk 4.

AOCB

1. There were no oth­er items of com­pet­ent business

Date of the next meeting

1. The next meet­ing is sched­uled for 27 Septem­ber 2024

2. The pub­lic busi­ness of the meet­ing con­cluded at 11.50am

Ref	Action Detail	Who	When	Status
24/11/23	Review accounts fig­ure for con­sultan­cies (page 68)	Louise and David	Look when final­ise the 23⁄24 accounts, high­light to the Com­mit­tee at that point. Reviewed and cor­rec­ted the fig­ure by Mazats,	Open

			will come with draft accounts.
27/06/24	At para 15b	Dav­id and Louise
	iv. Monthly update on pro­gress to be provided by officers to the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
27/06/24	At para 19a v. Add pro­cure­ment at 12th risk (stra­tegic risk register) At para 19c vi. Update word­ing on Impact descrip­tion on risk 7 (C2030 risk register) At para 19d vii. Review and amend (as appro­pri­ate) the prob­ab­il­ity score for risk 4 (C2030 risk register)	Dav­id

Resource Com­mit­tee Meet­ing Minutes

Held as a hybrid meeting

09 August 2024 at 09.00am

Present

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

In attend­ance

Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Apo­lo­gies

None

Wel­come and introduction

1. Rus­sell Jones, Com­mit­tee Chair, wel­comed every­one to the meet­ing of the Resources Committee.

Minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing for approval

1. The minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on the 17 May 2024 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered from pre­vi­ous meeting

1. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment updated that the Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy has been adop­ted and implemented.

ACTION	Status
Action points arising from pre­vi­ous meetings
17 May 2024
Paper 2
viii. Com­mit­tee would like updates about the peat­land res­tor­a­tion grants and more inform­a­tion of the dif­fer­ent types of res­tor­a­tion undertaken.	Open
Paper 3
ix. An update on the val­ues and cul­tures work to be brought to a future meeting.	Com­pleted
x. A change in the word­ing in the paper to ​“sup­ports staff to achieve excel­lence in their work, their beha­viour and their rela­tion­ships with each oth­er and extern­al stakeholders”	Com­pleted
xi. Issues raised on approaches to staff motiv­a­tion in the con­text of the sur­vey res­ults, more back­ground on this to come back to the Board.	In hand
xii. Good employ­ment stor­ies, train­ing, and per­son­al devel­op­ment to be shared with the pub­lic as a good news story, this to be dis­cussed with Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engagement.	In hand
Paper 4
xiii. Fol­low up on lone work­ing, ensur­ing staff are fol­low­ing pro­ced­ures to be brought to a future meeting.	Com­pleted
Paper 5
xiv. Board mem­bers would like to see Eólas to read through the policies avail­able or have a hand­book avail­able for Board Mem­bers to read.	In hand

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. No declar­a­tions of interest were made.

Budget mon­it­or­ing (Paper 1)

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 June — month three of the ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ fin­an­cial year.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing comments:

   a) Deputy Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer (CEO) and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices informed the Resources Com­mit­tee about recent inform­a­tion from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) regard­ing fin­an­cial changes to the Nature Res­tor­a­tion fund due to their budget con­trols. The com­mit­tee will be updated when fur­ther inform­a­tion is received.

   b) A board mem­ber ques­tioned if it was nor­mal for budget con­straints to hap­pen mid-way through a fin­an­cial year. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained that this was nor­mal to have budget adapt­a­tions over the second and third quar­ters of the year due to SG con­sid­er­ing their over­all fin­an­cial pos­i­tion as well as polit­ic­al changes.

   c) A board mem­ber sought cla­ri­fic­a­tion around the pay rise being delayed and if this was reflec­ted in the report. Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions noted that this was in the report and there was no alter­a­tion to that. The CEO con­firmed that they had budgeted more than may be required.

   d) Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices informed the com­mit­tee that they will be updated once they have more inform­a­tion pre­dict­ing the budget for ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ and ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇, but this is not likely to be avail­able until Janu­ary 2025.

   e) A board mem­ber quer­ied if this would have an impact on the staff levels. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices reas­sured mem­bers that there would be no com­puls­ory redund­ancy of pos­i­tions, and they are pos­it­ive about staff secur­ity. It was noted that the Park Author­ity would have to be mind­ful of hav­ing a blend of per­man­ent and fix term con­tracts to allow long-term flex­ib­il­ity in staff­ing and budget man­age­ment, how­ever high­light­ing it was dif­fi­cult to attract staff to a rur­al area on a fixed term contract.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action point arising

XV. Update com­mit­tee on the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ and ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ budget when an update from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment becomes available.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity equal pay audit (Paper 2)

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment presen­ted the paper which sets out details of an equal pay audit, designed to scru­tin­ise all aspects of pay includ­ing pro­files of the dif­fer­ent grades and dir­ect­or­ates across the organ­isa­tion, as well as recruit­ment and pro­mo­tion, in order to high­light any areas where dir­ect or indir­ect dis­crim­in­a­tion may be impact­ing on equality.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing comments:

   a) A board mem­ber ques­tioned if hav­ing more roles at a lower grade is bene­fi­cial to staff or if this has more of an equal­ity bene­fit. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment advised that the organ­isa­tion has a clear job eval­u­ation pro­cess which eval­u­ates posts, and not people. It was noted that hav­ing more roles at lower grades was not done from an equal­ity per­spect­ive, but rather was promp­ted by organ­isa­tion­al requirements.

   b) A board mem­ber wondered if there was a policy in place to shape jobs for the future that were more appeal­ing to women, and there­fore would encour­age women into seni­or posts. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment explained that this is being worked on through a num­ber of inter­ven­tions; includ­ing by assess­ing the per­son spe­cific­a­tion for a role and scru­tin­ising and min­im­ising the essen­tial and desir­able require­ments; and high­light­ing on the web­site the vari­ety of our equal­ity policies, flex­ible work­ing policies and job share oppor­tun­it­ies to encour­age more women to apply. It was noted that the Park Author­ity will always hire the best can­did­ate for the job, not based on gender.

   c) A board mem­ber brought to the atten­tion of the com­mit­tee that in a small organ­isa­tion, min­im­um changes make big dif­fer­ences to stat­ist­ics. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices agreed, reas­sur­ing that the trend line is still pos­it­ive. It was noted that there is a high reten­tion rate, there­fore low oppor­tun­ity to replace which will also affect the statistics.

   d) A board mem­ber raised con­cern about attract­ing women into new roles where there are little oppor­tun­it­ies for career pro­gres­sion due to a low turnover at dir­ect­or level. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained that their inten­tion is to retain staff, provide train­ing and pro­gres­sions, keep­ing staff motiv­ated with high mor­ale. There is cur­rently work hap­pen­ing on a sur­vey for middle man­age­ment to learn how to improve and enrich their roles.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action point arising: None

Park Author­ity val­ues and cul­ture review (Paper 3)

1. Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices presen­ted the paper which sets out the out­comes of the staff-led review and refresh of the Park Authority’s val­ues and cul­ture with a revised set of principles.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing comments:

   a) A board mem­ber ques­tioned if the val­ues and prin­ciples could apply to the board as well as staff. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices noted that these are for the whole organ­isa­tion, includ­ing board mem­bers; all mem­bers have been giv­en access to this paper. It was sug­ges­ted men­tion­ing the board mem­bers in the paper to make it clear they apply to all. Officers agreed to this. This will be high­lighted and cir­cu­lated to board mem­bers again once finalised.

   b) A board mem­ber praised the work car­ried out com­ment­ing that they could drive decision mak­ing but ques­tioned what the next phase to devel­op these would be. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices explained that the focus group would meet again to dis­cuss how to embed these into the organ­isa­tion­al strategies and work plans, launch these to staff and carry out sur­veys with bands D and E. Aims are for officers to align their beha­viours and their papers to these prin­ciples and policies going for­ward. Board mem­bers will be asked to adhere to these prin­ciples and will be fol­lowed up at their apprais­als with the Convener.

   c) A board mem­ber sug­ges­ted adding the word ​“actions” to the last para­graph — our next phase of work through our organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and people strategy will be to seek appro­pri­ate ways to devel­op the cul­ture through appro­pri­ate beha­viours, policies and actions — mak­ing these more action focused. Officers agreed to adding this.

   d) A board mem­ber sug­ges­ted there should be a spe­cif­ic men­tion about anti-racism in the prin­ciples. Officers agreed with the state­ment, how­ever noted that they needed to be uni­ver­sal, and if one aspect is men­tioned spe­cific­ally, it can lead to miss­ing anoth­er. They instead sug­ges­ted that this could be part of a break­down under beha­viours then dir­ect­ing to the prin­ciples and policies with much more cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the anti-racist aspect of the Park Authority.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action point arising

   i. Men­tion­ing the board mem­bers in the paper to make it clear these val­ues and prin­ciples refer to both staff and board members.

   ii. Add the word ​“actions” to the last para­graph — our next phase of work through

   our organisational development and people strategy will be to seek appropriate
   ways to develop the culture through appropriate behaviours, policies and
   actions."
   

Health and Safety meet­ing minutes (Paper 4)

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 noted the paper.

3. Action point arising

   i. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment noted more inform­a­tion would be brought to the com­mit­tee on the lone work­ing and acci­dent and incid­ent pro­ced­ure once all staff mem­bers are trained in the new system.

Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um minutes (Paper 5)

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 Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um mat­ters generally.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing comments:

   a) Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment explained the minutes were from June not Feb­ru­ary as dis­played on the paper.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper.

4. Action point arising: None

AOCB

1. None.

Date of next meeting

1. The pub­lic meet­ing ended at 10.02am

2. The next meet­ing will take place on 01 Novem­ber 2024

Motion for con­fid­en­tial ses­sion was made and approved to pro­tect con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of per­son­al data and of staff pay and con­di­tions pro­pos­als pri­or to form­al negotiations.

ACTION	Status
09 August 2024
Paper 1
ii. Update com­mit­tee on 25⁄26 and 26⁄27 budget when an update from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment becomes available.
Paper 3
iii. Men­tion­ing the board mem­bers in the paper to make It clear these val­ues and prin­ciples refer to both staff and board mem­bers. Cir­cu­late with board mem­ber once final­ised. iv. Add the word ​“actions” to the last para­graph — our next phase of work through our organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and people strategy will be to seek appro­pri­ate ways to devel­op the cul­ture through appro­pri­ate beha­viours, policies and actions.
Paper 4
V. Bring back more Inform­a­tion to the com­mit­tee on the lone work­ing and acci­dent and Incid­ent pro­ced­ure once all staff mem­bers are trained in the new system.