Resource Committee Paper 3 - Annual report

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 06 Novem­ber 2026 Page 1 of 4

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 Com­mit­tee to mem­bers for com­ment pri­or to cir­cu­la­tion to the 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 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 Board. This paper presents the report for the Resources Com­mit­tee over the last annu­al cycle.

---

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 06 Novem­ber 2026 Page 2 of 4

Resources Com­mit­tee Annu­al Report to Board for Peri­od Novem­ber 2025 to Octo­ber 2026

Activ­ity in Period

1. The Com­mit­tee met five times up to and includ­ing Octo­ber 2026 in the peri­od covered by this report.

2. The Com­mit­tee has scru­tin­ised management’s work and sought assur­ance over the fol­low­ing key aspects of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s oper­a­tions over the course of the report­ing peri­od: a) Chief Exec­ut­ive pay b) Staff pay pos­i­tion c) Budget mon­it­or­ing for both ²⁰²⁴⁄₂₅ and ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆ d) Budget man­age­ment and devel­op­ment of future budget estim­ates. e) Health and Safety oper­a­tions. f) Staff engage­ment, includ­ing Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um dis­cus­sions. g) Work­force Man­age­ment Strategy 2030 h) Oper­a­tion­al Devel­op­ment and People Strategy i) Ana­lys­is of fund­ing provided to com­munit­ies with­in the Nation­al Park j) Deliv­er­ing the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Authority’s Equal­ity Duties, includ­ing scru­tiny of the Park Authority’s Equal Pay Audit. k) Staff absence report l) Report on staff turnover in 2025

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

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.

---

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 06 Novem­ber 2026 Page 3 of 4

1. 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.

2. There have been no instances of need for escal­a­tion of con­cerns to the Board. Where appro­pri­ate, rel­ev­ant mat­ters have been high­lighted to oth­er com­mit­tees to sup­port coordin­ated assur­ance and effect­ive governance.

3. The Com­mit­tee con­sidered a broad range of fin­an­cial, organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and work­force mat­ters dur­ing the year. Par­tic­u­lar atten­tion was giv­en to fin­an­cial plan­ning and mon­it­or­ing, work­force strategy, staff engage­ment, health and safety, equal­ity and work­force met­rics. Through this work, the Com­mit­tee has provided assur­ance to the Board regard­ing the effect­ive­ness of man­age­ment arrange­ments and intern­al con­trols across these areas.

4. The Com­mit­tee also con­sidered sev­er­al stra­tegic work­force mat­ters in a con­fid­en­tial ses­sion dur­ing the year, includ­ing long-term work­force plan­ning, organ­isa­tion­al devel­op­ment and employ­ee engage­ment. These dis­cus­sions sup­por­ted the Committee’s role in provid­ing stra­tegic over­sight of the Authority’s people resources.

5. The Com­mit­tee received ana­lys­is of the geo­graph­ic­al dis­tri­bu­tion of grants and con­tract awards made dur­ing ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆, provid­ing assur­ance on the Authority’s con­tri­bu­tion to com­munity wealth build­ing with­in the Nation­al Park. The Com­mit­tee noted that 100% of grant fund­ing was awar­ded with­in the Park and that, over­all, 70% of grant and con­tract expendit­ure was dir­ec­ted towards bene­fit­ing com­munit­ies with­in the Park. Mem­bers also con­sidered the oppor­tun­it­ies and con­straints asso­ci­ated with pub­lic pro­cure­ment reg­u­la­tions and the actions being taken to increase oppor­tun­it­ies for loc­al sup­pli­ers and con­tract­ors to com­pete for future work.

6. 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 con­tin­ues to provide an import­ant and effect­ive com­pon­ent of the Park Authority’s assur­ance frame­work. Its over­sight of

---

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ùgh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Resources Com­mit­tee Paper 3 06 Novem­ber 2026 Page 4 of 4

fin­an­cial and people resources enables com­pre­hens­ive scru­tiny of the man­age­ment of these key areas, while sup­port­ing Mem­bers in provid­ing stra­tegic dir­ec­tion and con­trib­ut­ing to the effect­ive plan­ning and stew­ard­ship of the organisation’s resources.

1. 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.

2. The Com­mit­tee wishes to record its appre­ci­ation for the sup­port provided by officers through­out the year, par­tic­u­larly for the qual­ity of report­ing, pro­fes­sion­al advice and con­struct­ive engage­ment that has assisted the Com­mit­tee in car­ry­ing out its respons­ib­il­it­ies effectively.

Mari­aan Pita 19 Octo­ber 2026 mariaanpita@​cairngorms.​co.​uk