EAP Meet­ing

Held vir­tu­ally on Tues­day 29^th April — 5.30pm – 6.30pm

Present: Anita Howard Becca Mayo Heath­er Earn­shaw Kate Dowding Lina Payne Linda Bam­ford Keith Turn­er Kev­in Hutchens Vanessa Kind Stu­art Hall Micah Daigeaun Han­nah Grist (Chair) Lil­liana Cor­ri­eri Kath­er­ine Will­ing (CNPA)

Apo­lo­gies: Mar­isa Ginger Shreo­shi Das

1. Item one: Welcome

   • Han­nah wel­comed every­one to the meeting.

2. Item two: Review of Minutes of March 2025 Meeting

   • The minutes from March 2025 were agreed.
   • It was reques­ted and agreed that the action points from the March meet­ing will be reviewed at the next meeting.
   • It was reques­ted that the speak­er notes from the March meet­ing be shared with the panel.

3. Item three: Dis­cus­sion about the Park Authority’s part­ner­ship with LGBT Youth Scot­land, and recent cri­ti­cism of this and the actions towards achiev­ing accreditation.

   • Kate Christie gave inform­a­tion on the pro­cess and timeline of the decision to part­ner with LGBT Youth Scot­land. Kate Christie also provided inform­a­tion on the actions taken to achieve accred­it­a­tion and the oppor­tun­it­ies giv­en for to CNPA staff for Consultation.
   • Kate Christie explained that as per the CNPA’s Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity Duty the CNPA’s Equal­ity Main­stream­ing Report had been pub­lished which included the equal­ity out­comes which the pan­el had been con­sul­ted on.
   • Kate Christie provided inform­a­tion on the pro­cess for devel­op­ing the Gender Diversity Policy includ­ing the ori­gins of the tem­plate, groups who had been con­sul­ted, changes made because of the con­sulta­tions, leg­al advice and the impacts of this policy. Kate Christie explained as a res­ult of the Supreme Court rul­ing; fur­ther revi­sions have been made to the policy where there is men­tion of staff using toi­lets of their choice. Pri­or to the rul­ing most toi­lets in CNPA owned offices were single use, uni­sex toi­lets, fol­low­ing the rul­ing, all toi­lets have now been made single use, uni­sex toi­lets. Kate Christie explained that the policy is cur­rently being reviewed by CNPA’s law­yers to determ­ine wheth­er there are any oth­er changes that are required.
   • The pan­el praised Kate and CNPA for the pas­sion and hard work. It was reques­ted by some pan­el mem­bers for a com­mu­nic­a­tions piece on why equal­it­ies work is essen­tial to the work of the Nation­al Park.
   • The pan­el expressed that it was key to care­fully con­sider the recent Supreme Court rul­ing on the defin­i­tion of the pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ic of sex with­in the Equal­it­ies (2010) act and to pro­ceed with any work that is needed as a result.
   • The pan­el dis­cussed wheth­er a zero-tol­er­ance policy towards attacks on volun­teers and staff was needed. It was agreed that leg­al advice had been sought on this top­ic. CNPA will con­tin­ue to mon­it­or the situ­ation and respond accordingly.
   • The pan­el thanked CNPA staff for quickly respond­ing to requests for remov­al of inform­a­tion which had raised con­cern for indi­vidu­als’ safety.
   • The pan­el dis­cussed their bio­graph­ies being on the web­site. Fol­low­ing this dis­cus­sion, the pan­el agreed that where pan­el mem­bers are com­fort­able CNPA will con­tin­ue to pub­li­cise pan­el mem­ber bio­graph­ies on the web­site. If any pan­el mem­ber would like their bio­graphy removed from the web­site or any amend­ments made, please con­tact a mem­ber of CNPA staff and this will be removed or changed. It was agreed that CNPA staff will work with the CNPA com­mu­nic­a­tions team to cre­ate a tem­plate for pan­el mem­ber biographies.
   • The pan­el agreed that the CNPA web­site page dis­cuss­ing the EAP should be clear­er on the work it does and what the pan­els remit is by link­ing to the equal­it­ies report then imme­di­ately show­ing the terms of ref­er­ence for the pan­el. CNPA staff explained that on the new web­site all equal­it­ies work will come under one page.
   • The pan­el sug­ges­ted that fol­low­ing oth­er court rul­ings, there may need to be a review as to wheth­er CNPA is required to provide single sex toi­lets as well as single use toilets.
   • The pan­el were reminded that in some cir­cum­stances CNPA may have some influ­ence into vis­it­or toi­let facil­it­ies (e.g. if we are grant fund­ing them), but CNPA does not own any land and there­fore does not own any vis­it­or toilets.
   • The pan­el sug­ges­ted that CNPA con­sider imple­ment­ing a pro­cess to mon­it­or extern­al pub­li­city where indi­vidu­al staff or volun­teers are named to help ensure the safety of those impacted and that there is sup­port put in place.
   • The pan­el reques­ted that any guid­ance or policy that helps staff to under­stand how to inter­act online should also be shared with cur­rent and future volun­teers such as a social media policy. It was also sug­ges­ted that guid­ance on how situ­ations where indi­vidu­als are named in extern­al pub­li­city are man­aged. The pan­el also reques­ted media train­ing; this could be in-house. It was agreed that the social media policy will be shared with the panel.

4. AOBS

   • No AOBS

End of meeting

Next meet­ing 27 May 2025

Action Log

Meet­ing date	Action
29 April	Con­sid­er­a­tion of pan­el mem­ber bios on the website
	Con­sid­er­a­tion of more clar­ity about role of EAP on CNPA website
	Share with EP mem­bers any guid­ance about their use of social media and how it relates to their role as EAP member	KC
	Con­sider devel­op­ing pro­cess to mon­it­or extern­al pub­li­city where indi­vidu­al staff or volun­teers are named to help ensure the safety of those impacted and that there is sup­port put in place	HR/​Comms
	Con­sider Media train­ing for EAP	HR/​Comms
25 March 2025	CNPA to con­sider sign­ing up to the Young Women’s Work Pledge	HR team
	CNPA con­sider writ­ing an art­icle about CNPA’s well­being prac­tices for the Scot­tish Asso­ci­ation for Men­tal Helath
	CNPA to con­sider how Kirsty McNeill could use her role to sup­port the work of the EAP	HG to raise with Exec
	EAP to con­sider hav­ing a hori­zon scan­ning exer­cise to identi­fy how the EAP can best sup­port the CNPA
	Bench­mark exer­cise to see if any oth­er NPAs have a pan­el like the CNPA’s EAP, and if so how do they pub­li­cise the work of the EAP	KC