Draft minutes of the Resources Com­mit­tee meeting

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 28 August 2026 at 09.00am

Present in person Rus­sell Jones (Chair) Sandy Brem­ner Derek Ross Elean­or Mack­in­tosh Jack­ie Brierton

Present online Lauren McCal­lum (Deputy Chair) Han­nah Grist

In attend­ance Grant Moir, Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer Kate Christie Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment (online) Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions Kath­er­ine August, Fin­an­cial Account­ant Kar­en John­stone, Clerk to the Board

Apo­lo­gies Ian McLar­en Dav­id Camer­on, Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Services

Wel­come and introductions

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

Approv­al of minutes of pre­vi­ous meetings

1. The draft minutes from the pre­vi­ous meet­ing on 15 May 2026 were approved with no amendments.

Mat­ters arising not covered elsewhere

1. There were not mat­ters arising.

Actions from 24 Janu­ary 2025 meeting:

Inform­a­tion set out in Paper-6-FOISA_Complaints.pdf

Paper 1
i. Return to com­mit­tee the new policy on staff recog­ni­tion and reward once available.	Policy still under con­sid­er­a­tion, but Staff Bene­fits doc­u­ment has been developed and cir­cu­lated, which already sets out a num­ber of exist­ing benefits.
Paper 5
i. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Jack­ie Brier­ton to Invest­ig­ate the pos­sib­il­ity of Cred­it Uni­ons for staff and park wide.	Open
Action points from 29 August 2025
At para 15 g
i. Cap­ture if staff are mov­ing on to more seni­or roles out with the Park Author­ity in future reports.	Closed: — repor­ted verbally in update on staff turnover.
Action points from 7 Novem­ber 2025
At para 12
i. Dry runs of new pro­ced­ures inten­tion­ally trig­ger­ing health and safety tri­als to be con­sidered by the Health and Safety Committee.	Open, and tabled for June Health and Safety Com­mit­tee meeting
Action points from 13 Feb­ru­ary 2026
Paper 4 — Staff Con­sultat­ive Forum
At para 18c
i. Bring back a report on uptake of the new sab­bat­ic­al policy.	Closed — con­firmed on 15 May 2026 that to date there have been no applications.
Action points from 15 May 2026
Paper 1 — Fin­ance Monitoring
At para 6a
i. Fur­ther ana­lys­is of how much expendit­ure on the com­munity wealth fund has been dir­ec­ted to organ­isa­tions, indi­vidu­als, or busi­nesses with­in the Nation­al Park versus out­side the Nation­al Park to be pre­pared and presen­ted to the Committee	Closed — paper on agenda

Declar­a­tions of interest

1. There were no declar­a­tions of interest.

Fin­ance mon­it­or­ing (Paper 1)

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presen­ted the paper which presents a view of the Park Authority’s cur­rent fin­an­cial pos­i­tion. It included an estim­ate of the out­turn pos­i­tion for the fin­an­cial year ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆, togeth­er with the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion at the end of July — month four of the ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇ fin­an­cial year.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) A Board Mem­ber asked if the extra costs incurred owing to the wild­fires will come from the Park Author­ity budget or if Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) will sub­sid­ise this. CEO noted that they are hope­ful SG will cov­er some of the costs, how­ever this is cur­rently uncon­firmed. It will be covered through a vari­ety of organ­isa­tions, not solely the Park Authority’s respons­ib­il­ity. b) A ques­tion was raised regard­ing staff over­time dur­ing the wild­fire peri­od and how these costs will be covered. CEO con­firmed that staff will be giv­en half as annu­al leave and half will be paid, as the amount of over-time incurred was too high for staff to take all the time back as flexi and still be able to meet work com­mit­ments / dead­lines. Over­all, the expec­ted addi­tion­al costs are between £20,000 — £30,000. c) Clar­ity was sought regard­ing insur­ance and if this would cov­er any addi­tion­al staff­ing costs. CEO explained that as the Park Author­ity is a gov­ern­ment body, it falls under the Scot­tish Government’s self-insur­ance arrange­ments; this includes liab­il­ity insur­ance. d) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned why the Park Author­ity would be pay­ing to repair dam­aged equip­ment due to the fires, sug­gest­ing their own insur­ance would cov­er this. CEO explained that in the first instance the con­tract­ors’ insur­ance would cov­er this, but where there was a refus­al to pay out, the Park Author­ity would poten­tially cov­er this to ensure that volun­teer con­tract­ors are not out of pock­et. e) A ques­tion was raised regard­ing the gap cre­ated from the lack of staff turnover and how will that be filled. Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions explained that Heads of Ser­vice are cur­rently engaged in a refore­cast of the budget, and budget will be real­loc­ated where this is neces­sary to meet spend­ing pri­or­it­ies. f) A com­ment was made regard­ing the £6,000 paid to Nethy Bridge com­munity to cov­er costs for the sup­port for volun­teer food divi­sion, not­ing that Scot­tish Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice (SFRS) should cov­er some of these costs. g) Board Con­vener com­men­ted regard­ing the verbal con­firm­a­tion of fund­ing for trans­port pro­jects, thank­ing all staff for their hard work and efforts to get to this stage.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper agree­ing to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the estim­ated out­turn pos­i­tion for the ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ fin­an­cial year. b) Con­sider the budget man­age­ment pos­i­tion for ²⁰²⁶⁄₂₇.

4. Action Points Arising: None.

Ana­lys­is of fund­ing provided to the com­munity with­in the Nation­al Park (Paper 2)

1. Louise Allen, Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions presen­ted the paper which responds to a request for ana­lys­is of how much expendit­ure has been dir­ec­ted to organ­isa­tions, indi­vidu­als, or busi­nesses with­in the Nation­al Park.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Mem­bers thanked Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions for the paper not­ing the inform­a­tion was use­ful to high­light oppor­tun­it­ies for fur­ther com­munity wealth-build­ing. b) A Board Mem­ber high­lighted that graphs in the annex should show, in the Nation­al Park, else­where in Scot­land, and UK — oth­er — not only Eng­land. Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions agreed to update annex to reflect. c) Con­cern was raised regard­ing the title of the paper, sug­gest­ing that the title indic­ated this was all fund­ing giv­en to com­munit­ies, when in fact there was a lot more, spe­cific­ally in grants. Mem­bers and Head of Fin­ance and Cor­por­ate Oper­a­tions agreed to change the title to the same as the annex (Geo­graph­ic­al dis­tri­bu­tion of grants and con­tracts awar­ded dur­ing the fin­an­cial year ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆) as it was more appro­pri­ate. d) Dis­cus­sions were had on how often this paper should be brought to Resources Com­mit­tee, six months or annu­ally. It was noted that if the paper was to be presen­ted every six months, there may not be enough inform­a­tion for clear under­stand­ing of the funds alloc­ated and annu­ally may be more bene­fi­cial. CEO to dis­cuss and come back to the next meeting.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper agree­ing to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the inform­a­tion provided.

4. Action Points Arising: i. Change title of paper to match Annex 1, Geo­graph­ic­al dis­tri­bu­tion of grants and con­tracts awar­ded dur­ing the fin­an­cial year ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆, as this reflects the con­tents of the paper bet­ter and re-upload to the web­site. ii. Change the word­ing of the graphs to show in the Nation­al Park, else­where in Scot­land, and UK — oth­er. This should be re-uploaded to the web­site. iii. CEO to dis­cuss if this paper should be brought every six months or annually.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity equal pay audit ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ (Paper 3)

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment presen­ted the paper which high­lights the Park Authority’s ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ gender pay gap, using data as at 31 March 2026. The gender pay gap across the organ­isa­tion as a whole is iden­ti­fied, as well as across dir­ect­or­ates, grades and con­tract type (full time and part time). The paper also explores recruit­ment data and iden­ti­fies pos­sible reas­ons for the pay gap.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment noted that the table at para­graph 21 was incor­rectly col­our-coded, explain­ing this would be updated and reup­loaded to the web­site. b) A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there were any oth­er bench­mark stat­ist­ics relat­ing to the mean gender pay gap from oth­er organ­isa­tions. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment will request this data from oth­er Non-Depart­ment­al Pub­lic Body’s (NDPB’s) and share with Com­mit­tee mem­bers. c) CEO high­lighted that the heads of ser­vice is now a 50 / 50 mix of males and females which causes an increase in the pay gap as newly appoin­ted staff start at the bot­tom of the band, there­fore this will improve over the com­ing years as staff travel through the band. d) A Board Mem­ber high­lighted the import­ance of insur­ing the right people are in the right pos­i­tions due to their skills and qual­i­fic­a­tions, regard­less of gender. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment agreed not­ing there is a robust recruit­ment pro­cess with a sift pan­el of three people along with a selec­tion pan­el com­pris­ing a mix of male and female pan­el­list to ensure no there are no uncon­scious bias. We are con­fid­ent this robust pro­cess ensures that the best per­son is appoin­ted the role regard­less of that person’s demo­graph­ic. e) Dis­cus­sions were had around sup­port net­works and ment­or­ing staff at lower levels. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment noted that this is some­thing that is being con­sidered. It was high­lighted that the Women in Lead­er­ship course was for seni­or levels to enhance skills and con­fid­ence to allow staff move into seni­or roles, how­ever some­thing sim­il­ar could be done with bands C and D. f) Dis­cus­sions were had on sup­port for young people and help­ing them devel­op and enter the work force. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment explained that the HR team are involved with young people, devel­op­ing trans­fer­able skills and help­ing high school stu­dents with com­plet­ing applic­a­tions and inter­view skills. g) A Board Mem­ber com­men­ted that the new Head of Com­mu­nic­a­tions and Engage­ment pos­i­tion could be used as a good news story, high­light­ing also as a poten­tial good news story that 64% of the work force in the Park Author­ity are female.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper agree­ing to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Com­mit­tee are asked to note the gender pay gap.

4. Action Points Arising: i. Update the col­ours on the table at para­graph 21 re-upload to the web­site. ii. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment to reach out to NDPB’s to gath­er stat­ist­ics on mean gender pay gap to allow bench­mark comparisons.

Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um minutes (Paper 4)

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment presen­ted the paper which sets out the minutes from the Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um (SCF) meet­ing held on 08 June 2026.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper agree­ing to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the minutes of the meeting.

3. Action Points Arising: None.

Health and Safety Com­mit­tee minutes (Paper 5)

1. Kate Christie, Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment presen­ted the paper which sets out the minutes from the Health and Safety Com­mit­tee meet­ing held on 11 June 2026.

2. The Resources Com­mit­tee dis­cussed the paper and made the fol­low­ing com­ments: a) Dis­cus­sions were had around the inap­pro­pri­ate com­ments and verbal abuse towards Rangers, not­ing that two incid­ents is a small num­ber, how­ever still too many. A Board Mem­ber ques­tioned if there was a com­mon theme amongst the reports. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment explained there was no com­mon theme. This is some­thing the Health and Safety Com­mit­tee are mon­it­or­ing. b) Dis­cus­sions were had around the first fines with­in the fire byelaws tak­ing place with Board Mem­bers ques­tion­ing if there will be pub­li­city on this. CEO con­firmed this will be made pub­lic; how­ever, times­cales are still unclear for this pro­cess. c) Dis­cus­sions were had around the tem­por­ary fire byelaw sig­nage with a Board Mem­ber not­ing they find it dif­fi­cult to read and ask­ing what the fixed signs will look like. CEO explained the designs have been made for these as they have to adhere to the road authority’s sig­nage, which will be shared with Com­mit­tee Members.

3. The Resources Com­mit­tee noted the paper agree­ing to the recom­mend­a­tions: a) Note the minutes of the meeting.

4. Action Points Arising: i. CEO to share the fixed fire byelaw road signs.

AOCB

1. None

Date of Next Meeting The date of the next meet­ing is 06 Novem­ber 2026.

The meet­ing con­cluded at 9.58am Motion for con­fid­en­tial ses­sion to be set out will be to pro­tect con­fid­en­ti­al­ity of staff.

Actions from 24 Janu­ary 2025 meeting:
Inform­a­tion set out in Paper-6-FOISA_Complaints.pdf
Paper 1
i. Return to com­mit­tee the new policy on staff recog­ni­tion and reward once available.
Policy still under con­sid­er­a­tion, but Staff Bene­fits doc­u­ment has been developed and cir­cu­lated, which already sets out a num­ber of exist­ing benefits
Paper 5
ii. Deputy CEO and Dir­ect­or of Cor­por­ate Ser­vices and Jack­ie Brier­ton to Invest­ig­ate the pos­sib­il­ity of Cred­it Uni­ons for staff and park wide.
Open
Action points from 29 August 2025
At para 15 g
iii. Cap­ture if staff are mov­ing on to more seni­or roles out with the Park Author­ity in future reports.
In hand — will be repor­ted in 2026 Staff Reten­tion paper.
Action points from 7 Novem­ber 2025
At para 12
iv. Dry runs of new pro­ced­ures inten­tion­ally trig­ger­ing health and safety tri­als to be con­sidered by the Health and Safety Committee.
Open, and tabled for June Health and Safety Com­mit­tee meeting
Action points from 28 August 2026
Paper 2 — Ana­lys­is of fund­ing provided to the com­munity with­in the Nation­al Park
Com­pleted
i. Change title of paper to match Annex 1 as this reflects the con­tents of the paper bet­ter and re-upload to the website.
ii. Change the word­ing of the graphs to show: in the Nation­al Park, else­where in Scot­land, and UK — oth­er. This should be re-uploaded to the website.
Com­pleted
iii. CEO to dis­cuss if this paper should be brought every six months or annually.
Paper 3 — Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Equal Pay audit 2025⁄26
i. Update the col­ours on the table at para­graph 21 re-upload to the website.
ii. Head of Organ­isa­tion­al Devel­op­ment to reach out to NDPB’s to gath­er stat­ist­ics on mean gender pay gap to allow bench­mark comparisons.
Paper 5 — Health and Safety Com­mit­tee minutes
At para 21 c
i. CEO to share the fixed fire byelaw road signs.