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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Paper 2 Annex 1 10/08/07 


PAGE 1

Image:  Cairngorms National Park Authority logo

GENDER EQUALITY SCHEME 

(June 2007) 




PAGE 2

CNPA GENDER EQUALITY SCHEME 

Foreword 

This is the Gender Equality Scheme for the Cairngorms National Park Authority and 
it forms an integral part of the CNPA’s wider commitment to promote equality of 
opportunity in the delivery of its public functions and as an employer. 

The CNPA is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity and encouraging 
diversity across all its functions and in its dealings with all stakeholders and partner 
organisations. The Gender Equality Scheme sets out how we intend to reinforce this 
commitment and ensure that gender equality is embedded at the heart of our work 
as a National Park Authority. 

Jane Hope 
Chief Executive 
Cairngorms National Park Authority 




PAGE 3

Introduction 

The Board of the National Park made an early commitment that the Cairngorms 
National Park should be available to all people regardless of age, culture, 
background or ability, and they embraced the ethos of a “Park for All” which has 
underpinned all the strands of the CNPA’s work to date. Much work has been done 
since the inception of the CNPA in 2003 to establish strong links with relevant 
community networks in order that they can advise and inform the way in which 
equality is embedded at the core of everything the CNPA seeks to achieve. 

The general duty requires that in carrying out its functions we pay due regard 
to the need to: 

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment 
• Promote equality of opportunity 
• Promote positive attitudes 

The specific duties include: 

1. Publishing a Gender Equality Scheme 
2. Action Planning with appropriate outcomes 
3. Reporting against scheme annually and reviewing schemes every 3 years 
(timescales may vary across duties) 
4. Publish an equal pay policy statement, and report on this every 3 years 
(optional) 

There are 4 key elements that are fundamental in developing our Equality Scheme. 
These are: 

• Consultation with stakeholders 
• Measuring progress 
• Conducting impact assessments for all existing and new policies 
• Developing and implementing of an action plan 

This Gender Equality Scheme sets out how the CNPA has involved people from 
across the community and addressed gender equality in its work to date, but more 
importantly, details in an Action Plan how it will reinforce this commitment in line with 
the legislation above. 

Context of the Cairngorms National Park 

One of the first Acts of the Scottish Parliament in 2000 legislated for National Parks 
in Scotland. There are now two National Parks: Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, 
established in 2002 and the Cairngorms, established in 2003. 

Scotland’s National Parks are a distinctive model that combines conservation of the 
natural and cultural heritage with sustainable use, enjoyment and development of the 
areas communities. Not only do National Parks seek to conserve and enhance the 
qualities that make these places special, they offer significant benefits to the people 
of Scotland. In particular, National Parks offer the following opportunities: 

• Delivering better outcomes – National Parks, by more co-ordinated efforts 
of the public, private, community and voluntary sectors, can deliver more 


PAGE 3

integrated and sustainable results in terms of environmental, economic and 
social benefits. 

• Developing solutions for rural Scotland – National Parks provide the 
opportunity to develop and test innovative solutions to rural issues which can 
be applied to benefit other areas across Scotland. National Parks are an 
opportunity to develop and disseminate best practice that makes a difference 
to people living and working in rural Scotland. 

• Providing a Park for All – National Parks offer excellent opportunities for 
people of all backgrounds, interests and abilities to enjoy, learn and benefit 
from these special places. 

• Promoting ‘The Pride of Scotland’ – National Parks represent Scotland’s 
most iconic landscapes and reflect the natural and cultural heritage that 
shapes our nation’s identity. They are national assets and by showing how 
people and place can thrive together, National Parks can make a significant 
contribution to Scotland’s national identity. 


NATIONAL PARK DESIGNATION AND AIMS 

The National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 sets three conditions which an area 
designated as a National Park must satisfy: 

• That the area is of outstanding national importance because of its 
natural heritage, or the combination of its natural and cultural 
heritage; 
• That the area has a distinctive character and a coherent identity; 
• That designating the area as a National Park would meet the 
special needs of the area and would be the best means of 
ensuring that the National Park aims are collectively achieved in 
relation to the area in a co-ordinated way. 


The Act also sets out four aims for National Parks in Scotland: 

• To conserve and enhance the natural and cultural heritage of the 
area; 
• To promote sustainable use of natural resources of the area; 
• To promote understanding and enjoyment (including enjoyment in 
the form of recreation) of the special qualities of the area by the 
public; 
• To promote sustainable economic and social development of the 
area’s communities. 


The Cairngorms National Park Authority is principally an enabling and facilitating 
body rather than a regulatory body. Its enabling and facilitating powers include: 

• anything that will help the Park Authority achieve its aims 


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• fixing and recovering charges for goods or services provided in the course of 
carrying out the aims 
• carrying out research and related activities 
• entering into agreements with any person in the Park with an interest in land 
to ensure that the aims of the Park are met 
• giving grants and loans (with the consent of Scottish Ministers) 
• securing the provision of nature reserves 
• providing information and educational services and facilities to promote 
understanding and enjoyment of the Park 
• providing facilities to encourage visitors to national parks for leisure purposes 
including camp sites, accommodation, meals and refreshments where 
necessary 
• being a consultee on a range of matters undertaken by other public bodies, 
for example Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the 
creation of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), forestry activities and 
traffic regulation orders 

It does have regulatory powers to: 

• deal with those planning decisions which may have significant impacts on the 
Park (by calling in the application for determination). 
• make management laws and byelaws to: 

o protect the natural and cultural heritage of the Park. 
o prevent damage to the land or anything in or under it. 
o secure the public’s enjoyment of and safety in the Park. 


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DEVELOPMENT OF THE CNPA GENDER EQUALITY SCHEME 

Process 

The development of this scheme has been led by our Education and Inclusion 
manager, with input from across the organisation. We have worked closely with the 
Highlands & Islands Equality Forum, who have facilitated focus groups and research 
which has fed into our scheme. We have involved the public, our staff and partners 
in drawing up this scheme. 

Progress to Date 

The focus groups highlighted some areas of good practice which are already in place 
including flexible working practices e.g. flexi-time system, 6 months maternity leave 
on full pay, plus a further 3 months on Statutory Maternity Pay, career breaks, 
special leave and home working policies, job-sharing and part time working to 
facilitate caring responsibilities and work life balance. We have also introduced a 
Child Care Voucher system. 

We will continue to identify areas for improvement in all aspects of equality and 
diversity through our action plan. 

Involving the Community 

To date the CNPA has worked closely with many organisations in shaping the Park 
For All theme, and will continue to do so. Our Inclusive Cairngorms group, which 
seeks to promote social inclusion in the National Park represents a diversity of 
organisations and interests. Those relevant to gender issues include: YWCA, 
Women@Work, Local Authority Equalities officers, Highlands and Islands Equality 
Forum, local learning centres, and other community groups. Involvement with 
these groups has included consultation on development of social inclusion policies, 
provision of funding to promote equality and inclusion, and provision of equalities 
advice to the National Park Authority. 

In developing the Gender Equalities Scheme, a Sub group of Inclusive Cairngorms 
was formed to take it forward, with assistance from Highlands and Islands Equality 
Forum. Two Focus Groups consultations were held to record gender issues, one 
with CNPA staff and other with Park service users. 

Gathering Further Information 

 New contacts have been made through the focus groups, eg with the transgender 
community and we will involve them in future reviews of our GES and action plan. 

As CNPA builds relationships with its partners and Park service providers, any new 
gender related issues can be brought to light and incorporated into future GES 
reviews. 


PAGE 7

Impact Assessment 

CNPA aims to proactively identify aspects of our policies and procedures which may 
cause barriers to men, women or transgender people, and to amend policies 
accordingly to stave off any potential discrimination. 

CNPA is in the process of developing a template for reviewing existing policies, 
practices and procedures and this will be used to assess new policies as they are 
developed. The aim of this is to ensure that any issues of gender and transgender 
are considered in relation to our policies. This template will be reviewed in light of 
advice from representatives from gender equality organisations, and in consultation 
specifically with Inclusive Cairngorms. 

The Gender Equality sub-group of Inclusive Cairngorms will undertake impact 
assessments on our policies, and will work with CNPA staff to prioritise the policies 
to be assessed first. 


DELIVERING EQUALITY THROUGH THE NATIONAL PARK PLAN 

As already stated in the introduction, the CNPA is largely a facilitating and enabling 
body, which works in partnership with a wide range of organisations across the park 
area. This means that much of our work involves influencing others to change the 
ways in which they work in order to achieve particular aims. The CNPA achieves 
this through a range of methods including influencing and negotiation, providing 
training, funding support, relevant appropriate information on the National Park, 
community involvement and a range of other methods. 

This section details how gender equality is being addressed within the different parts 
of the National Park Plan, including the Guiding Principles, the strategic objectives 
and priority actions. 

Social Justice – A Park for All 

The CNPA has established links with inclusion and equalities groups and interests, 
and will continue to involve them in creating opportunities for everyone to engage 
with the Park. This includes amongst others, male, female and transgender people. 

People Participating In The Park – A National Park For People 

The CNPA has established links with inclusion and equalities groups and interests, 
and will continue to involve them in shaping the Park and its management. This 
includes amongst others, male, female and transgender people. 

Managing Change – A National Park Open to Ideas 

The CNPA will seek to listen and work with equalities groups and interests to 
achieve best possible solutions to manage change within the Park. 



PAGE 8

Adding Value – A National Park That Makes a Difference 

The CNPA will encourage cooperation between different interests, including 
equalities groups and interests, to establish the best way forward to achieve Park 
aims. 

Living and Working in the Park 

Community Planning and provision of local services 

The CNPA will seek to promote the provision of local services that meet the needs of 
communities through Community Planning and other community development 
initiatives. The principles of Community Planning can be extended as a means to 
involve people in management planning across all aspects of this plan, so that 
through active engagement the knowledge, needs and ambitions of communities can 
be shared and realised. 

Housing and Planning Services 

Making housing more affordable and sustainable is a key action within the National 
Park Plan. Those on low incomes, especially women (who are likely to earn less 
than men) and single people (who only have one household income, and who may 
include young, single parents), need affordable housing. In general, housing is not a 
gendered issue, other than the fact that socially affordable housing would support 
women indirectly because of their low income. However, because most single 
parents are women, there is a public perception that women are given priority over 
men in securing housing. We need, therefore, to support service providers in getting 
the message across that there is equal priority for single fathers with families. To 
allow a general misconception about favourable treatment to prevail would go 
against our aims to build positive community awareness of gendered issues. 

The housing planning process should be open, transparent and consider gender 
equality in terms of allocations. CNPA has a role to play in encouraging good 
practice. 

Promoting equality in employment 

Within the Park 

The National Park area has relatively low unemployment and businesses can face 
difficulties in recruiting labour. Barriers to employment include poor access to 
transport, inflexibility of working hours, lack of childcare, small businesses having 
limited resources to make adaptations in the work place, lack of training or 
knowledge of employment rights, and lack of affordable housing. CNPA will work in 
conjunction with other organisations to address some of these barriers and to work 
with organisations in addressing any gender bias created by these barriers. Priority 
issues to address will include those which feature in the National Park Plan, e.g. 
improved public transport, affordable housing and childcare services. 

Within the CNPA 

CNPA seeks to promote good practices in employment by ensuring that its own 
practices offer equality of opportunity and care is taken to ensure that we not only 
fulfil our legal obligations as employers, but go beyond this to promote equality of 
opportunity and diversity within our workforce. 



PAGE 9

Information is gathered at the recruitment stage, and updated regularly throughout 
employment to allow us to monitor equality. Our HR database enables reporting of 
equality issues to accurately assess the gender balance in relation to recruitment 
into the organisation, promotion and access to training. There is provision to monitor 
disciplinary and grievance issues on these grounds as well should they arise. Our 
recruitment and employment processes are designed to eliminate unlawful 
discrimination at all levels, and this is closely monitored on an ongoing basis. 

Flexible working practices underpin our HR policies, and many of the benefits we 
offer already go beyond our legal obligations as an employer. We offer a flexi-time 
system, 6 months paid maternity leave, career breaks, special leave and home 
working policies which are all designed to aid those with caring responsibilities to 
balance the requirements of work and home more effectively. We have been able to 
accommodate requests for job-sharing and part time working to facilitate caring 
responsibilities and work life balance is equally available to all staff regardless of 
gender. We have also introduced a Child Care Voucher system to enable staff to 
make tax savings whilst paying for childcare. 

Consultation with staff shows that flexible working and childcare initiatives are 
valued. 

The Focus Group held with CNPA staff highlighted the following issues: 

1. Gender segregation within the CNPA staff 
All the Admin staff within the CNPA are female and there was a perception that 
females were under-represented in departments outside administration. The 
distribution of staff throughout the organisation is shown in the graph below (where 
bands 5 and 6 are admin posts). There was some discussion in the focus group 
about ensuring that Admin staff were aware of the career paths open to them, and 
about how to encourage male applicants for admin posts which are more traditionally 
seen as female dominated. This is reflected in the Action Plan Aim 2, Objectives 2 & 

3. Family friendly policies are a high priority within CNPA and are there to support 
both male and female staff with childcare responsibilities. It is generally recognised 
that more women than men are affected by childcare issues in society, and this is 
one of the areas in which CNPA tries to promote equality of opportunity. By 
assisting both men and women with childcare responsibilities to balance domestic 
responsibilities with work requirements people are encouraged to apply for higher 
level posts within the organisation, where domestic responsibilities may otherwise 
have prevented this. 



PAGE 10

Gender Distribution Through CNPA Grades 
(Bar graph not available in full text format)


2. Educating the wider community of equal opportunities 
There was a suggestion that work experience opportunities for school children could 
be created so that they can see the full range of career opportunities available, and 
that works shadowing could also be used to enhance understanding of opportunities 
for men, women and transgender people. 

This is covered in the Action Plan under Aim 2, Objective 6. 

3. CNPA policies generally 
There were comments that the CNPA has a good record of reacting sensitively to 
requests for flexible working from both male and female staff. Flexible working 
policies, childcare vouchers and a general policy of providing support to staff where 
possible have helped to promote diversity and should provide a lead to other 
agencies in the Park area. It was agreed that CNPA policies should be monitored 
and reviewed to ensure that they continue to promote equality in the work place. 

4. Engagement with transgender, gay and lesbian community 
There was a general feeling in the focus group that there was unlikely to be a 
negative reaction from individual CNPA staff to transgender people joining the 
workforce, nor was sexuality perceived to be an issue. Any practical issues relating 
to transgender peoples requirements were felt to be easily overcome (eg toilet 
provision). As an organisation CNPA values employees of any gender and sexuality 
and will provide the support required to allow them to work within the organisation. 



PAGE 11

Promoting Access to Education and Vocational Training 

Those of all abilities wishing to train and study locally require more opportunities to 
do so. The provision of more trainers, courses and modules delivered within the Park 
will assist local people to gain skills. 

Rural and traditional jobs are typically male dominated, e.g. farming, forestry, game 
keeping, etc. There is a feeling that young females stop engaging with Park activities 
between ages 12 and 15. Therefore there is scope for CNPA to consider initiatives to 
encourage young females to take part in traditional vocational employment, eg 
through its rural skills and vocational training work. 

Transport & Communications 

Transport infrastructure is an essential component of both residents’ and visitors’ 
access to the National Park and its environment. The National Park sits at the 
centre of a national and regional transport network that provides good road and rail 
links to Inverness, Aberdeen and Perth. However, transport links within the Park are 
less well developed, eg links between key towns in early morning and evening. 

The lack of services within the Park appears to impact more on women than men, as 
less women can drive and because the man of the household usually uses the family 
car for commuting. In addition those on low incomes are more likely to be women, 
and this social group is less likely to own a car. Women with young families at home 
face additional challenges in being able to get out and about and access services. 

Because of lack of services or affordability, there are personal and road safety 
implications for women and transgender people who have to travel on foot in rural 
areas. Similarly there are personal safety concerns amongst women and 
transgender people arising from a lack of awareness amongst service providers on 
gender issues. 

There can be difficulties for parents (usually young mothers) in getting children’s 
buggies onto public transport. On the other hand, buggies can create a barrier for 
other passengers, particularly those with disabilities. Buses should be better 
designed to cater for different needs, and equipment for transporting young children 
could be available for hire within the Park. 

The CNPA aims to address the gaps in public transport provision in the Park and 
promote sustainable transport initiatives. Better timetables and information will also 
be encouraged and supported to increase ease of access around the National Park. 
CNPA continues to work in close partnership with other public bodies to provide 
accessible information on public transport networks across the Park. 

Enjoying and Understanding the Park 

Sustainable Tourism 

Tourism plays a key role in supporting economic growth, encouraging enjoyment and 
understanding of the National Park and in helping to promote Scotland on a world 



PAGE 12

stage as a place to live, work and enjoy. The CNPA will work with tourism and 
outdoor recreation providers to improve and maintain the quality of experience in the 
National Park for all visitors. 

In general, recreational facilities appear to be improving in terms of considering 
equality issues, but there are calls for baby changing and public toilet facilities in 
rural areas to be improved. Baby changing facilities are quite often in ladies’ toilets 
which makes it difficult for men to take children out for the day. There are also 
personal safety issues for women and transgender people in accessing public toilets 
in lonely places and late at night. 

Likewise some women are concerned for their personal safety when mountain biking 
alone or with their children. CNPA will support the provision of Personal Safety 
Awareness classes that give specific information for certain vulnerable groups 
accessing work and leisure in a rural environment. 

Regarding tourist accommodation and other service providers in small rural 
communities, there appears to be a general lack of acceptance of transgender 
people and lack of understanding of their needs. The CNPA could help to address 
this by influencing Park service providers of the need for gender / equalities 
awareness training. 

Information 

CNPA needs to ensure that visitors to the Cairngorms are aware of the range of 
opportunities, places to visit and things to do throughout the Park, and appreciate 
and respect its special qualities. They do this using a wide range of information tools 
including publications and signage. 

The Park Plan states that visitor information will be targeted at specific audiences 
and encourage responsible outdoor access, visitor safety and the health benefits of 
regular outdoor access. As well as promoting the special qualities of the Park, 
information will seek to promote the benefits of outdoor access. CNPA will seek to 
support the Ranger services, land owners, tourism and outdoor recreation providers 
across the National Park to have a greater awareness of gender issues and how to 
provide access opportunities for all. 

The Cairngorms Explorer visitor guide contains information about “access for all 
routes.” This includes routes which would be suitable for pushchair use. The CNPA 
will continue to provide information for publications such as “Walking on Wheels: 50 
Wheel Friendly Trails in Scotland”. This publication details 12 routes within the 
National Park. 

In general, literature produced by the CNPA shows a balanced mix of male/female 
images, however some highland activities such as shinty and mountain biking are 
male dominated and care needs to be taken to promote sports for women and for 
whole family enjoyment. This should also be reflected in literature produced by Park 
service providers. 


PAGE 13

Feedback from Park users suggests that there appears to be a general lack of 
information on the Park’s services, for local people and visitors, and for specific 
groups, eg transgender people and people with disabilities. 

Access 

The National Park is internationally renowned for the exceptional range and quality 
of outdoor access and recreational opportunities. The area provides many people 
with the chance to enjoy the natural environment in many different ways. 

The CNPA will develop a co-ordinated approach to the provision of a range of 
opportunities in the Park for people of all abilities through the sustainable 
management of high quality outdoor access and recreation involving the public, 
private, community and voluntary sector. 

The CNPA will seek to engage and involve all communities in the planning and 
management of outdoor access throughout the Park. All consultations will be 
conducted in line with the National Standards for Community Engagement. 

Social Inclusion 

The Cairngorms National Park should be a place where everyone can experience 
the benefits, whatever their background or ability. The CNPA’s inclusion work is 
focussed on reaching beyond the “usual suspects” who traditionally visit the National 
Park, to excluded groups and encourage them to engage with the Park. The CNPA 
is committed to work with other partners who already operate in this field, to create 
opportunities through marketing, community engagement, improving access and 
developing learning and education outreach programmes 

This will include creating and promoting packages for specific user groups with 
relevant and user friendly information about the Park which details what is on offer, 
eg through Cairngorms on a Shoestring 

Ambassadors will use these materials to help promote the Park to excluded groups 
and a programme of activities will be developed to increase people’s awareness and 
understanding of the area, for example through volunteering opportunities and the 
John Muir Award. Outreach projects include working with young single-parent 
mothers and we are developing links with the Women at Work network. The John 
Muir Award has worked with several organisations to help women engage with the 
Park including Fairbridge, Wild Mountain Dreams, Upper Deeside Learning and 
Conservation Project and Stewarton Academy in Ayrshire 

Conclusion 

The CNPA will seek to improve equality of opportunity and eliminate discrimination 
as detailed above and specifically in the following Action Plan. There is a role for the 
CNPA to remain a vigilant guardian of good practice and to lead the way in 
educating all, including partners, Park service providers and users. 



PAGE 14

Blank


PAGE 15 - 16

CNPA GENDER EQUALITY SCHEME - ACTION PLAN 
July 2007 – July 2010 

Aim 1 – To Eliminate Unlawful Discrimination and Harassment. 

Outcome
Objective 1 
Develop Equality Impact 
Assessment system in conjunction 
with DES Action Plan 

Action
1. Complete work on IA template and roll out to all 
departments in CNPA 

Timescale 
March 2008 

Accountable
Education and Inclusion Manager 

Outcome
Objective 2 
Equal Pay Audit and review every 2-3 years. 

Action
1. Conduct equal pay audit of our payscales and 
salaries across the organisation, and repeat this 
process every 2-3 years 
2. Address any imbalance in the annual pay review process. 

Timescale
1. December 07 
2. Annual

Accountable
HR Manager 


Outcome
Objective 3 
Ensure all staff are trained adequately in gender equality 
awareness, giving priority to training managers on terms of recruitment 
and managing staff 

Action
1. Build equality awareness into management 
training programmes 
2. Ensure that all staff understand equality and 
diversity good practice and how to identify 
particular equality issues such as gendered 
issues. Raise awareness of direct and indirect 
discrimination, harassment and victimisation 
and what to do should they witness them, 
3. Ensure that all staff involved in recruitment are 
trained in their specific responsibilities in regard 
to equality 
4. Ensure clear guidelines for the reporting and 
management of any discriminatory practice 

Timescale
December 2007 and ongoing 

Accountable
HR Manager


Outcome
Objective 4 
To ensure Park service providers are aware of and understand the 
needs of different equality groups,including personal safety concerns

Action
1. Education and awareness training of Park 
service providers and public re gender equality. 
HIEF can provide this awareness-raising and 
 follow-up bespoke training
2. Support councils to improve public toilets eg re 
baby changing facilities for men, safety measures 
3. Support community safety training in rural areas 
and look at ways of disseminating information to 
target certain groups 

Timescale
1 general roadshow type event each 
calendar year withtraining supplied on request
2. December 08
3. September 08

Accountable
Sustainable Tourism Officer / Visitor Services
Manager / Social Inclusion officer



PAGE 17 - 18

Aim 2 – To Promote Equality of Opportunity. 

Outcome 
Objective 1 
Ensure equality of opportunity to access training 

Action 

1. Continue to audit training provision and uptake 
of training opportunities. Ensure equality of 
access between genders by offering gender 
specific training if required. 

Timescale
Ongoing, report annually

Accountable
HR Manager


Objective 2 
Ensure male, female and 
transgender staff are equally 
encouraged to take up training and 
career development opportunities. 

Action
1. Update appraisal guidance to include a section on equality. 
2. Provide information about training and career 
development opportunities to all across the organisation. 
3. Use findings from IA to inform actions 

Timescale
1. September 07

Accountable
HR Manager



Objective 3 
To promote a good gender balance 
throughout all levels of the organisation. 

Action
1. Job advertisements at all levels will promote 
equality of opportunity 
2. Staff at all levels will be encouraged to seek 
career development opportunities equally 
through the appraisal system, with information 
on career paths available, particularly for admin 
staff. 
3. Where possible career development 
opportunities will be encouraged (eg 
secondments, promotions, work shadowing etc). 
Publishing of clear career development 
opportunities allows men, women and 
transgender employees to identify opportunities 
and to feel encouraged by their relevance and 
open access to them 
4. Where appropriate training may be offered to 
help overcome specific areas of imbalance. 
5. Offer work shadowing schemes in-house for 
existing employees to gain better understanding 
of other departments. 

Timescale 
1. September 07 
2. October 07 and ongoing 

Accountable 
HR Manager 


Objective 4 
Ensure Park service providers and residents are well informed of Park 
services and facilities including information on needs of specific 
user groups 

Action
1. Continue and increase uptake of Cairngorms 
Connections course amongst Park service 
providers and the general public including 
reference to the needs of specific user groups. 
2. Develop visitor information on the Park which is 
available to specific user groups 

Timescale
1. September 2008
2. Sept 2007 ongoing

Accountable
Sustainable Tourism Officer
Marketing Officer


Objective 5 
To ensure that Park users, in 
particular women and transgender 
people can travel easily and safely 
within and into the Park. 

Action
1. Support sustainable community transport 
initiatives as part of community development. 
2. Provide safety training to transport service providers in Park. 
3. Support innovative solutions to cater for 
buggies, bikes, wheelchairs, eg adaptation of 
buses, provision of all terrain buggies and 
backpacks for hire in the Park. 

Timescale
November 2007 ongoing

Accountable
Economic Dev Officer
Outdoor Access Officer



Objective 6 
To assess ways to promote 
understanding of career 
opportunities for both genders within 
the community 

Action
1. Explore the possibility of setting up a work 
placement scheme within CNPA. 

Timescale
March 2008

Accountable 
HR Manager



PAGE 19

Aim 3 – To Promote Positive Attitudes. 

Outcome 

Objective 1 
Park Service Providers will 
understand equalities issues and 
demonstrate good practice in 
meeting the needs of all Park 
users, whatever their background 
or ability. 

1. Include diversity / equalities criteria in Green 
Tourism Business Scheme / Park brand 
applications, eg training in equalities 
awareness
2. Market the business case for equality and 
diversity to Park Service providers. 

Timescale
Mar 2008

Accountable
Tourism and Economic Dev
team, Social Inclusion officer


Objective 2 
CNPA and other Park service 
providers will produce materials 
showing images of a balanced mix 
of genders and activities to 
promote equal access to services 
and facilities. 

Action 

1. Monitor and review CNPA and other 
organisations’ publications showing equality of 
genders in images. 
2. In visitor survey, obtain statistics on balance of 
male/female/transgender participation in 
different activities and address any 
stereotyping. 

Timescale
1. Mar 2008 ongoing
2. Next Park visitor survey

Accountable
1. Communications Officer
2. Visitor Services Manager



PAGE 20

Aim 4 – To Build Awareness of Specific Barriers to Full Inclusion of Men, Women and Transgender 
People. 

Outcome 
Objective 1 
Continue to build awareness of any 
gender issues amongst CNPA staff 

Action
1. Add equality as an agenda point on all staff 
consultative forum meetings 
2. Hold regular staff surveys/face-to-face focus 
group meetings 
3. Consult with trade unions 
4. Collate information from complaints procedure 
5. Analyse findings eg if not achieving a 
representative gender mix, investigate possible 
causes and take action 
6. Feed back learning into GES Action Plan 

Timescale
September 07

Accountable
HR Manager


Objective 2 
Continue to build awareness of any 
gender issues amongst CNPA Park 
Users 

Action 
1. Hold annual consultations with Park Users 
2. Create feedback forms that ask pertinent 
questions about gendered issues 
3. Continue to work with Inclusive Cairngorms 
4. Make contact with new groups who hold 
information eg schools, Young mothers’ groups 
etc 

Timescale
November 07 and
annual Park for All Conference

Accountable
Social Inclusion Officer