Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

is. improve­ment service

NATION­AL PLAN­NING IMPROVE­MENT FRAMEWORK

Improve­ment Action Plan 2024

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority

---

People

A high per­form­ing plan­ning author­ity needs to have the right num­ber of people to do the work expec­ted of it with the rights skills set. It also needs to have a strategy to ensure that it retains and recruits the right staff in the future. It sup­ports staff to upskill and to be pre­pared for changes in policy, legis­la­tion, and new circumstances.

Attrib­ute	Score (1=Making excel­lent pro­gress, 5= No progress)
1. The plan­ning author­ity has suf­fi­cient resources and skills to max­im­ise productivity	3
2. The plan­ning author­ity has a val­ued and sup­por­ted workforce	2

Based on the grad­ing above, out­line any areas of improve­ment that are required and by whom and their level of import­ance (High/​Medium/​Low) and by when (short/​medium/​long term).

Improve­ment Action What action will you take? What will the out­come be?	Own­er	Import­ance High Medi­um Low	Times­cale Short term — 1 year Medi­um term — 3 years Long term — 3+ years	Resources
Work with the human resources team in their update of the cur­rent Work­force Man­age­ment Strategy to con­sider and review the spe­cif­ic chal­lenges around recruit­ment to the plan­ning ser­vice, and devel­op fur­ther meas­ures to address this with­in the con­text of cur­rent recruit­ment constraints.	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer in con­junc­tion with Human Resources team	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff time
Mon­it­or and review the effect­ive­ness of the Gradu­ate Plan­ner posts as part of the ​‘grow your own’ approach to address­ing plan­ning recruit­ment challenges.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment and For­ward Plan­ning Managers	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff time
Carry out a skills audit with­in the plan­ning team, rel­at­ive to the new expect­a­tions and require­ments in NPF4, to identi­fy gaps in know­ledge and inform spe­cif­ic train­ing pro­grammes, and to iden­tity any areas where addi­tion­al extern­al sup­port may be required.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment and For­ward Plan­ning Managers	High	Short	Staff time

---

Cul­ture

A high per­form­ing plan­ning author­ity has a pos­it­ive cul­ture through ensur­ing it has sound gov­ernance, effect­ive lead­er­ship and a com­mit­ment to con­tinu­ous improve­ment. The author­ity has an iden­ti­fied chief plan­ner, who is sup­por­ted by a strong lead­er­ship group to advise on decision-mak­ing, policy and oper­a­tion­al management.

Attrib­ute	Score (1=Making excel­lent pro­gress, 5= No progress)
3. This Plan­ning Author­ity has embed­ded con­tinu­ous improvement	3
4. This Plan­ning Author­ity has sound governance	2
5. This Plan­ning Author­ity has effect­ive leadership	2

Based on the grad­ing above, out­line any areas of improve­ment that are required and by whom and their level of import­ance (High/​Medium/​Low) and by when (short/​medium/​long term).

Improve­ment Action What action will you take? What will the out­come be?	Own­er	Import­ance High Medi­um Low	Times­cale Short term — 1 year Medi­um term — 3 years Long term — 3+ years	Resources
Under­take an annu­al review of pro­jects to identi­fy poten­tial can­did­ate sub­mis­sions for rel­ev­ant award schemes to achieve wider recog­ni­tion of the high qual­ity work under­taken by the plan­ning service.	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment and	Medi­um	Ongo­ing	Staff time
Con­tin­ue to plan and deliv­er an ongo­ing pro­gramme of mem­ber train­ing, in agree­ment with the Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener of the Plan­ning Committee.	For­ward Plan­ning Man­agers Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer, Con­vener and Deputy Con­vener of Plan­ning Committee	High	Ongo­ing	Staff and mem­ber time

---

Tools

A high per­form­ing plan­ning author­ity needs to have an effect­ive loc­al devel­op­ment plan and oth­er strategies in place to provide a vis­ion for the future of the area. It needs to be able to set and deliv­er on policy ambi­tions and pri­or­it­ies by clearly inform­ing decision mak­ing and provid­ing cer­tainty and pre­dict­ab­il­ity for com­munit­ies, developers and invest­ment. The authority’s devel­op­ment man­age­ment sys­tems need to be effect­ive in mak­ing the right decisions about devel­op­ment and be as effi­cient as pos­sible in doing this. The plan­ning author­ity makes best use of digit­al tech­no­logy and how it man­ages and uses data.

Attrib­ute	Score (1=Making excel­lent pro­gress, 5= No progress)
6. The plan­ning author­ity has a robust policy and evid­ence base	2
7. The plan­ning author­ity makes best use of data and digit­al technology	3
8. The plan­ning author­ity has effect­ive and effi­cient decision-mak­ing processes	3

Based on the grad­ing above, out­line any areas of improve­ment that are required and by whom and their level of import­ance (High/​Medium/​Low) and by when (short/​medium/​long term).

Improve­ment Action What action will you take? What will the out­come be?	Own­er	Import­ance High Medi­um Low	Times­cale Short term — 1 year Medi­um term — 3 years Long term — 3+ years	Resources
Work­ing in con­junc­tion with col­leagues at Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Nation­al Park Author­ity, com­plete the migra­tion of our IDOX sys­tem to the cloud to ensure con­sist­ency and resi­li­ence of ser­vice provision.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Man­ager, Plan­ning Sys­tems Officer	High	Short term	Staff time
Liaise with Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment to explore wheth­er the e‑development portal could be adap­ted to accept addi­tion­al sup­port­ing inform­a­tion post call-in.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Man­ager, Scot­tish Government	Medi­um	Medi­um	Staff time, Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment resource support
Imple­ment a pro­ject to ensure effect­ive mon­it­or­ing of com­pli­ance with plan­ning per­mis­sions for major devel­op­ments in line with Sec­tion 44 of the Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 2019.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment Man­ager, Enforce­ment Officer	High	Short term	Staff time

---

Engage

A high per­form­ing plan­ning author­ity should ensure a wide range of people are involved in shap­ing their future places. Engage­ment should be fair and inclus­ive, early, col­lab­or­at­ive, mean­ing­ful and pro­por­tion­ate and should include dif­fi­cult to reach groups. The author­ity should engage with a wide range of part­ners at a nation­al, region­al and loc­al level to ensure a joined-up approach and that links are made across policies and pro­grammes. The plan­ning author­ity should demon­strate good cus­tom­er care, trans­par­ency and effect­ive communication.

Attrib­ute	Score (1=Making excel­lent pro­gress, 5= No progress)
9. This plan­ning author­ity has good cus­tom­er care	3
10. The plan­ning author­ity has effect­ive engage­ment and col­lab­or­a­tion with stake­hold­ers and communities.	2

Based on the grad­ing above, out­line any areas of improve­ment that are required and by whom and their level of import­ance (High/​Medium/​Low) and by when (short/​medium/​long term).

Improve­ment Action What action will you take? What will the out­come be?	Own­er	Import­ance High Medi­um Low	Times­cale Short term — 1 year Medi­um term — 3 years Long term — 3+ years	Resources
Recon­vene the Developers For­um, in an updated format, to provide a more effect­ive mech­an­ism for reg­u­lar engage­ment with devel­op­ment industry rep­res­ent­at­ives to identi­fy and address com­mon issues and to tar­get fur­ther ser­vice improvements.	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer	Medi­um	Short term and then ongoing	Staff time
Recon­vene the Plan­ning Rep­res­ent­at­ives Net­works, in an updated format, to provide a more effect­ive mech­an­ism for reg­u­lar engage­ment with com­munity coun­cil rep­res­ent­at­ives to identi­fy and address com­mon issues and tar­get fur­ther ser­vice improve­ments, and explore oth­er meth­ods for increas­ing plan­ning know­ledge and engage­ment at the loc­al com­munity level.	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer, Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment and For­ward Plan­ning Managers	Medi­um	Short term and then ongoing	Staff time
Recon­vene reg­u­lar plan­ning pro­tocol meet­ings with rel­ev­ant loc­al author­ity col­leagues, in an updated format, to identi­fy and address com­mon issues and to tar­get fur­ther ser­vice improvements.	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer	Medi­um	Short term and then ongoing	Staff time
Over­haul the plan­ning web pages as part of a wider redevel­op­ment of the Park Authority’s web­site to ensure great­er use of access­ible lan­guage, clear­er advice and guid­ance, and enhanced vis­ib­il­ity of plan­ning content.	Devel­op­ment Man­age­ment and For­ward Plan­ning Managers	High	Medi­um term	Staff time

---

Place

A high per­form­ing plan­ning author­ity should demon­strate place lead­er­ship by tak­ing a col­lab­or­at­ive place-based approach in line with the Place Prin­ciple. It should use the Place and Well­being Out­comes in decision-mak­ing pro­cesses, to achieve the three spa­tial prin­ciples out­lined in NPF4: sus­tain­able places, where we reduce emis­sions, restore and bet­ter con­nect biod­iversity; live­able places, where we can all live bet­ter, health­i­er lives; and pro­duct­ive places, where we have a green­er, fairer, and more inclus­ive well­being eco­nomy. The plan­ning author­ity should seek to ensure that there are no imped­i­ments to deliv­er­ing agreed development.

Attrib­ute	Score (1=Making excel­lent pro­gress, 5= No progress)
11. The plan­ning author­ity sup­ports the deliv­ery of sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places	3
12. This plan­ning author­ity sup­ports the deliv­ery of appro­pri­ate development	3

Based on the grad­ing above, out­line any areas of improve­ment that are required and by whom and their level of import­ance (High/​Medium/​Low) and by when (short/​medium/​long term).

Improve­ment Action What action will you take? What will the out­come be?	Own­er	Import­ance High Medi­um Low	Times­cale Short term — 1 year Medi­um term — 3 years Long term — 3+ years	Resources
Carry out a review of s75 pro­cesses and pro­ced­ures to include great­er align­ment with loc­al author­ity developer oblig­a­tions teams and rel­ev­ant ser­vices, intro­duc­tion of clear­er ​‘heads of terms’ doc­u­ment­a­tion in con­junc­tion with loc­al author­ity leg­al teams to stream­line s75 draft­ing pro­cess, and	Head of Plan­ning & Chief Plan­ning Officer and Development	High	Short — medi­um term	Staff time
imple­ment pro­cesses for enhanced mon­it­or­ing of s75 agree­ments post approval.	Man­age­ment Manager
Devel­op and imple­ment stand­ard plan­ning con­di­tions to ensure con­sist­ency where pos­sible across all decisions, stream­line decision mak­ing, and to enable easi­er / more effect­ive mon­it­or­ing and enforcement.	Seni­or Plan­ning Officer	High	Short term	Staff time