250124Paper6AnnualCommitteeReport

For inform­a­tion

Title: Resources com­mit­tee annu­al report

Pre­pared by: Mari­aan Pita, Exec­ut­ive Sup­port Manager

Pur­pose

1. This paper presents the annu­al report of the Resources Com­mit­tees to mem­bers for com­ment pri­or to cir­cu­la­tion to the full board.

Recom­mend­a­tions

1. The Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Con­sider the draft annu­al report of the Resources Com­mit­tee. b) Agree any amend­ments to the draft pri­or to cir­cu­la­tion to the full board.

Back­ground

1. In line with intern­al audit recom­mend­a­tions and as an ele­ment of the remit of the Com­mit­tees, each Com­mit­tee sub­mits an annu­al report cov­er­ing its activ­it­ies and reflect­ing on its oper­a­tions over the course of the last year to the full board. This paper presents the report for the Resources Com­mit­tee over the last annu­al cycle.

Resources Com­mit­tee Annu­al Report to Board for Peri­od Novem­ber 2023 to Octo­ber 2024

Activ­ity in Period

1. The Com­mit­tee met on five times up to and includ­ing the spe­cial meet­ing of 04 Octo­ber 2024 in the peri­od covered by this report.

2. The Com­mit­tee has sought assur­ance over the fol­low­ing key aspects of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s oper­a­tions over the course of the report­ing peri­od: a) Budget mon­it­or­ing for both ²⁰²²⁄₂₃ and ²⁰²³⁄₂₄. b) Budget man­age­ment and devel­op­ment of future budget estim­ates. c) Stra­tegic risk man­age­ment and mit­ig­a­tion con­sid­er­a­tions around the Plan­ning Ser­vice and deliv­ery of our plan­ning func­tions. d) Draft fin­an­cial out­turn pos­i­tion for ²⁰²³⁄₂₄. e) The organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and people strategy 2024 – 2027. f) Deliv­er­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Equal­ity Duties, includ­ing scru­tiny of the Park Authority’s Equal Pay Audit. g) Staff engage­ment, includ­ing Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um dis­cus­sions. h) Park Author­ity val­ues and cul­ture review. i) Health and Safety oper­a­tions. j) Staff turnover and staff absence mon­it­or­ing. k) Staff pay and pay awards. l) Peri­od­ic updates on the staff and Board pay awards that was approved in Octo­ber with effect from 01 April 2024.

3. The Park Author­ity con­tin­ues to focus on the poten­tial to secure sig­ni­fic­ant inward grant fund­ing and private fin­ance in sup­port of its activities.

4. Fol­low­ing inform­a­tion received from Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment regard­ing fin­an­cial changes due to budget con­trols a budget review was car­ried out in August 2024 fol­low­ing con­firm­a­tion that the Nature Res­tor­a­tion Fund not being avail­able to the Park Author­ity, with con­sequent reduc­tions in anti­cip­ated income for the year.

Review of activ­it­ies and commentary

1. Over­all, the com­mit­tee feels it has been suc­cess­ful in dis­char­ging its remit and per­form­ing an appro­pri­ate and valu­able ele­ment of the Park Authority’s gov­ernance and assur­ance pro­cesses. Appro­pri­ate areas of over­lap with oth­er com­mit­tees on per­form­ance and risk man­age­ment have been recog­nised and min­im­ised, with mat­ters passed on between Com­mit­tees with­in their remits as necessary.

2. This annu­al report is more a fac­tu­al record of the activ­it­ies of the Com­mit­tee over the peri­od, rather than a qual­it­at­ive eval­u­ation of the work of the Committee.

3. There have been no instances of need for escal­a­tion of con­cerns to the full board, while some minor mat­ters have been made known to oth­er com­mit­tees to enhance coordin­ated assur­ance over resources.

4. The Com­mit­tee covered a wide range of sub­ject areas over the course of the peri­od of this report, as illus­trated by the sum­mary of top­ics covered at point two, provid­ing the board with assur­ance over the man­age­ment and con­trols exer­cised with­in these areas of the Park Authority’s operations.

5. The Com­mit­tee has not iden­ti­fied any changes required to its terms of ref­er­ence over the course of this report­ing period.

Con­clu­sions

1. The oper­a­tion of the Resources Com­mit­tee has provided an import­ant and effect­ive ele­ment of the Park Authority’s assur­ance sys­tems. The Committee’s focus on the com­bin­a­tion of fin­an­cial and staff resource man­age­ment provides for a com­pre­hens­ive scru­tiny of the man­age­ment of these areas, while allow­ing for mem­bers to provide integ­rated stra­tegic dir­ec­tion and sup­port in the for­ward plan­ning of these key resources.

2. Cur­rent mem­bers believe there are no sig­ni­fic­ant changes needed in the Committee’s oper­a­tions over the com­ing year. Com­mit­tee mem­bers will con­tin­ue to work with seni­or officers to evolve and adapt report­ing struc­tures as required.

3. The Com­mit­tee appre­ci­ates the sup­port of officers through­out the year, par­tic­u­larly for their com­pre­hens­ive and clear papers as well as con­struct­ive engage­ment dur­ing meetings.

Mari­aan Pita 08 Janu­ary 2025 mariaanpita@​cairngorms.​co.​uk