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Resources Paper 2 - Draft SCF Minutes

For inform­a­tion

Draft minutes of the Staff Con­sultat­ive Forum

Held at Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity office, Grant­own-on-Spey Hybrid 11 March 2026 at 12.00pm

Present

  • Char­lotte Milburn
  • Dav­id Camer­on (Chair)
  • James Lee
  • Kate Christie
  • Mari­aan Pita
  • Mike Woolv­in
  • Nas­im Mehrabi
  • Pip Mack­ie
  • Rus­sell Jones (Board Member)

Apo­lo­gies

  • Adam Streeter-Smith
  • Derek Ross (Board Member)
  • Philip Brooks-Weaver (Pro­spect)

Item 1

Wel­come and apologies

  1. Dav­id Camer­on (DC) wel­comed every­one and advised that Philip Brooks-Weaver is now the appoin­ted the Park Author­ity Pro­spect contact.

  2. Apo­lo­gies were received from the above.

Item 2

Minutes and Mat­ters Arising

  1. The draft minutes were approved.

  2. The fol­low­ing mat­ters were raised: a) A com­ment had been received regard­ing the dis­missive tone of the Septem­ber minutes cov­er­ing the Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer (CEO) pay pro­cess update. DC advised that the aim of the Staff Con­sultat­ive For­um (SCF) was to be open and con­sultat­ive, par­tic­u­larly where there was a mean­ing­ful oppor­tun­ity for staff to have input and shape what was pos­sible. In this case, the update was for trans­par­ency, with no oppor­tun­ity for staff to have input. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment (SG) have set sep­ar­ate guid­ance for CEO pay. The Board and Board Con­vener take the rel­ev­ant guid­ance and then give their recom­mend­a­tions back to SG. There­fore, this isn’t a mat­ter for stand­ard con­sulta­tion through SCF. The update was for inform­a­tion and for staff to be aware of the pro­cess for trans­par­ency pur­poses. b) DC advised that there were stand­ard stat­ist­ics that will be included in the final accounts cov­er­ing the CEO pay levels. These include the gap between CEO pay and the next highest dir­ect­or and also a mul­ti­pli­er of the medi­an across organ­isa­tion from the aver­age pay level. This will give a com­par­is­on against the wider organ­isa­tion. The fin­ance team are cur­rently work­ing on the 2026 accounts, which will include these cal­cu­la­tions. These fig­ures are expec­ted to be pub­lished around June 2026 and will be included in pub­lic papers and brought back to SCF giv­ing trans­par­ency around this. c) DC advised that the CEO pay for 2025⁄26 had been approved and was in line with the wider staff pay award for bands F‑G, that being a phased award,

part imple­men­ted in April 2025, and part in Janu­ary 2026. This was a single-year award. CEO Pay Policy 2026⁄27 has not yet been published.

Item 3

Papers 1: Energy Sav­ings Trust Vehicle Loan

  1. Kate Christie (KC) intro­duced the paper, which had been draf­ted by the Fin­an­cial Account­ant, as fol­low up inform­a­tion on the paper pre­vi­ously brought to SCF regard­ing elec­tric vehicle (EV) salary sac­ri­fice scheme. There was a request that staff rep­res­ent­at­ives make staff aware of this loan scheme and sign­post them to the paper should they require inform­a­tion on this scheme.

  2. The fol­low­ing point was raised: a) Thanks were expressed for the fol­low through on this paper and information.

  3. DC thanked every­one for the feedback.

Item 4

Paper 2: Men’s health and well­being guidance

  1. Kate Christie (KC) intro­duced the paper and advised that it sits under the over­arch­ing Health and Well­being Policy. It was noted that the Health and Well­being Policy requires updat­ing as it now encom­passes a suite of policies and guid­ance that have recently been intro­duced by the organ­isa­tion, such as the endo­met­ri­os­is and men­stru­al health, preg­nancy loss, fer­til­ity treat­ment and neurodi­versity policies. It was noted that con­sid­er­a­tion had been giv­en to wheth­er or not we needed this as a guid­ance doc­u­ment or a would an annu­al cam­paign be adequate in terms of cov­er­ing this issue. It was con­cluded that a cam­paign was just at a moment in time and would there­fore only impact those who chose to engage with it at that moment, where­as this guid­ance note is avail­able for staff to access at any point and is there­fore more sus­tain­able and has more longev­ity and impact. This guid­ance would be sup­por­ted by cam­paigns, as appro­pri­ate. Feed­back was requested.

  2. The fol­low­ing points were raised:

a) Support for the guidance and it is balancing some of the other documents in the suite of guidance.
b) It covers a topical subject and good that the organisation has developed this.
c) An awareness that there are several staff support groups across the organisation that are linked to guidance. How can staff best be made aware of these groups. KC advised that the staff groups are listed on the Eolas Equalities page, they will also be included in the various induction checklists.
d) A suggestion that the mental health first aiders (MHFAs) are made aware of the groups for signposting. There could also be a quarterly update on Eolas.
e) It was highlighted that there was currently work being done on internal communications at the moment, KC to discuss with Paul Davison how these informal groups may be best supported by the changing use of Teams channels.
  1. KC thanked every­one for the feed­back and the guid­ance was adopted.

Item 5

Paper 3: Pro­ba­tion Policy

  1. KC and PM intro­duced the paper. Seek­ing to increase pro­ba­tion peri­od from six months to nine months, intro­duc­tion of short-term con­tract pro­ba­tion peri­od and flow­charts. Feed­back was requested.

  2. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) Cla­ri­fic­a­tion if line man­agers were provided with the pro­ba­tion policy in advance of a new mem­ber of staff start­ing. It was con­firmed that the policy and forms were provided to the line man­ager in advance of the new starter join­ing the organ­isa­tion. The doc­u­ments were also sent to the new starter as part of their onboard­ing pro­cess. b) Query­ing why pro­ba­tion may be exten­ded if a line man­ager was absent. KC advised that exten­sion of pro­ba­tion should not be seen as a neg­at­ive but rather a sup­port mech­an­ism for the mem­ber of staff. If line man­ager was absent, the envir­on­ment had not been such that the indi­vidu­al was able to be fully sup­por­ted by their line man­ager to meet their objectives.

  3. PM thanked every­one for the feed­back and the policy was adopted.

Item 6

Paper 4: Annu­al Job Plan

  1. KC intro­duced the form and advised that it had been revised to include train­ing requests, per­son­al growth and aspir­a­tions. This was in response to some staff sur­vey feed­back about Per­son­al Growth, which had not shown any improve­ment on the pre­vi­ous sur­vey. Feed­back was requested.

  2. The fol­low­ing points were raised: a) The new addi­tions were wel­comed. b) The pos­sib­il­ity of staff being able to spe­cify the pri­or­ity of train­ing / devel­op­ment. This would be in dis­cus­sion with the line man­ager, in terms of staff capa­city to under­take train­ing whilst bal­an­cing work­load pri­or­it­ies. KC advised that some staff may not have any train­ing require­ments and are happy in their role, there­fore they would not need any­thing com­plet­ing in this sec­tion. DC advised that the sec­tion could include areas that staff would like to do but are not able to under­take due to capa­city as this makes the HR team aware. c) The need to recog­nise that this is a dynam­ic doc­u­ment. d) A request to see a top-down approach from SMT, with a require­ment for all staff to com­plete the plan. e) The fact the form spe­cified the need to include time for staff to check Eolas and space for for­ward think­ing was wel­comed. f) The pos­sib­il­ity of includ­ing a well­being sec­tion. KC respon­ded that this is best placed in the per­form­ance devel­op­ment con­ver­sa­tion form (PDC) rather than the job plan form. The job plan guides the over­all and fac­tu­al job require­ments for the next 12 months. The PDCs are where deliv­ery of tar­gets and activ­it­ies are dis­cussed and mon­itored and where issues may be dis­cussed includ­ing men­tal health. The HR team will be revis­ing the PDC form to update it and make it more user friendly and will ensure there is a spe­cif­ic and vis­ible prompt regard­ing well­being, this will be brought back to SCF and link will be provided on the job plan form