280323-EAPMinutes-V01

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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EAP Meet­ing Held vir­tu­ally on 28 March 2023 Present: Anita Howard Becca Mayo Fiona McLean (Chair) Heath­er Earn­shaw Kate Christie Kath­er­ine Will­ing Kev­in Hutchens Lil­liana Cor­ri­eri Lina Payne Linda Bam­ford Vanessa Altweck

Apo­lo­gies: Peter Kennedy

1. Item one: Wel­come • Fiona wel­comed the group to the meeting.

2. Item two: Recap and actions from pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 28 Feb­ru­ary 2023 • There was a brief dis­cus­sion on some of the points raised in the pre­vi­ous months dis­cus­sion • for those who had not been present at the meet­ing. • The minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing were agreed. • The action log was reviewed.

3. Item three: Broad dis­cus­sion on equal­it­ies and com­mu­nic­a­tions. Brenna Jessie, Digit­al Con­tent Man­ager • This item was not dis­cussed at the meet­ing, it was agreed that it will be dis­cussed at a future meeting.

4. Item four: Draft trans­gender policy. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment • Kate gave the back­ground and over­view of the policy. The pan­el were asked to con­sider the policy — is any­thing miss­ing, is the lan­guage and tone appro­pri­ate, are there any spe­cif­ic con­sid­er­a­tions for the accom­pa­ny­ing EQIA. • Lan­guage — The pan­el sug­ges­ted that the title of the policy should include Equal­ity and Inclu­sion. The pan­el sug­ges­ted the word­ing in the ​‘man­agers respons­ib­il­ity’ sec­tion referring

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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• to inform­ing col­leagues was not clear and should be revis­ited. The pan­el sug­ges­ted the policy should state employ­ees are respons­ible for read­ing and under­stand­ing the policy, under the employ­ee respons­ib­il­ity sec­tion. The pan­el also sug­ges­ted the policy should include a more inter­sec­tion­al approach. The pan­el felt the use of the word­ing ​‘single sex toi­lets’ was ambigu­ous and should be changed. • Gender crit­ic­al beliefs — The pan­el sug­ges­ted under ​‘scope’ there should be a seg­ment on how the policy inter­acts with gender crit­ic­al beliefs and to what extent there is leg­al pro­tec­tion. There was a dis­cus­sion as to wheth­er the policy should include a state­ment explain­ing that gender crit­ic­al beliefs may not be accept­able in the work­place due to the dis­tress it can cause. It was agreed that some of this relates to the organ­isa­tions bul­ly­ing and har­ass­ment policies and to keep it as open point of dis­cus­sion. • Involve­ment of oth­er groups — Fol­low­ing the dis­cus­sion on gender crit­ic­al beliefs, some mem­bers of the pan­el felt there may be bene­fit in con­sult­ing oth­er groups such as Church of Scot­land or the Muslim Coun­cil of Scot­land. Oth­er mem­bers of the pan­el ques­tioned this as felt that trans voices should be pri­or­it­ised in this policy. The mem­bers of the pan­el felt this would only be of bene­fit if an inter­sec­tion­al approach was taken, such as approach­ing faith groups with an LGB­TQIA inter­sec­tion. • Employ­ee and man­ager respons­ib­il­ity — The pan­el sug­ges­ted this sec­tion should be reviewed so it is clear as to what employ­ees’ respons­ib­il­it­ies are. The pan­el explained that ally­ship is not a leg­al respons­ib­il­ity, where­as employ­ees hav­ing dig­nity at work is and the policy does not cur­rently make a clear enough dis­tinc­tion. • Mon­it­or­ing and report­ing — The pan­el sug­ges­ted broad­en­ing the word­ing of the mon­it­or­ing and report­ing sec­tion to help future proof the policy. • Appendix 1 — The pan­el firstly sug­ges­ted review­ing some of the defin­i­tions used. Fol­low­ing fur­ther dis­cus­sion, the pan­el agreed that the defin­i­tion used should stay but there should be a note of the source of the defin­i­tion. The pan­el sug­ges­ted dis­cuss­ing the policy with the Scot­tish Trans Alli­ance who may be able to help with defin­i­tions of ter­min­o­logy. • Miss­ing con­tent — The pan­el felt the policy would bene­fit from a state­ment includ­ing that due to increased social accept­ance there is an increase in the num­ber of people liv­ing openly trans. The pan­el felt the policy should include that all med­ic­al treat­ment and time off for appoint­ments is provided for indi­vidu­als. The pan­el sug­ges­ted includ­ing that where pos­sible, when an indi­vidu­al requests a change in name and/​or pro­nouns where this change can be made imme­di­ately it should be, with the remain­ing changes being made when appro­pri­ate. The pan­el felt it should be included that the exclu­sion of trans col­leagues can go bey­ond social scen­ari­os and can be in a work set­ting such as meet­ings. The pan­el felt the policy lacked inform­a­tion on how it links with volun­teers and mem­bers of the pub­lic. • Address­ing neg­at­ive com­ments — The pan­el felt it was import­ant to address any poten­tial neg­at­ive com­ments by includ­ing a state­ment at the begin­ning of the policy as to why the

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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policy is neces­sary. It was sug­ges­ted by the pan­el that the launch of the hate crime charter may be help­ful for address­ing neg­at­ive comments.

1. Item five: Any oth­er busi­ness • The pan­el dis­cussed the sur­vey for presenters. It was agreed to add a ques­tion which asks the presenter how help­ful they found the meet­ing on a scale of 1 – 5. It was agreed to uncap­it­al­ize ​“extern­al” when refer­ring to the Equal­ity Advis­ory Pan­el. It was agreed that fur­ther cla­ri­fic­a­tion was needed on the ques­tions do you feel you provided enough inform­a­tion before the meet­ing and where you already aware of the pan­el? • The pan­el dis­cussed pro­mo­tion of the group. It had been agreed that the pan­el would be in the cairn magazine and pan­el mem­bers were asked to email if they wanted to con­trib­ute. • The pan­el dis­cussed the link to the Cairngorms Nature Fest­iv­al. It was agreed the appro­pri­ate officer would be informed.

End of meeting

Next meet­ing 25 April 2023