Natural England

National Park Authority Secretary of State appointments – a new approach to recruitment (AP03/23)

1.   The Agency has a statutory right to be consulted by the Secretary of State on proposed appointments to national park authorities [1].   In practice, we discharge this thoroughly by undertaking a significant part of the recruitment administration.   Annex 1 sets out the process and the nature and extent of the contribution of the various parties to it. One important input is provided by Board members who chair selection interview panels and provide recommendations on appointment for the relevant Minister, through our Chairman. 

2.   Publicising vacancies is currently the responsibility of Defra and NPAs who issue news releases and take other action at the appropriate times. On occasion individual NPAs purchase additional local advertising, but this is not a universal practice.

3.   The current approach is not delivering the wide range of suitable candidates for appointment desired by Ministers. In the last appointments round all the candidates shortlisted for interview in the North York Moors and the Broads [JB5]  were rejected.

4.   There are also shortcomings with the administrative process, which is shared between CA, Defra and the NPAs.   This can confuse candidates, who have complained about long waits for decisions, inflexible   interview dates and poor quality of information about an NPA member’s role.

5.   These are good reasons to improve the recruitment process so that it more effecttively delivers a strong field of candidates from a wide range of backgrounds, including candidates who can make links between national parks and urban communities, and younger people.   

Progress to date

6.   On 19 March 2003 CA Board members and Directors with finest countryside responsibilities met Alun Michael, the Minister responsible.   It was agreed that the Agency and Defra should work jointly to improve the appointments process to make it more ‘user friedly’ and to attract applicants from a more diverse range of backgrounds.    Agency and DEFRA officials have looked carefully at the process and identified several opportunities to improve it.  

Possible changes   – short term

7.   One obvious improvement would be to focus responsibility for the   process clearer by concentrating more of it either in Defra or the Agency (without altering the respective decision making roles).   Having fewer people involved would improve lines of communication for applicants and reduce the scope for confusion.   There are two options for providing such a “one-stop shop”:

Option 1.         The Countryside Agency could offer to manage the entire process from the identification of need to the provision of recommendations to the Minister. We might choose to contract out some of the more mechanical tasks of advertising and application processing (with appropriate performance measures attached) but we would have to keep in-house the sifting and interviewing processes which involve making judgements of qualification and quality,   involving other parties as needed. (See Annex II)

Option 2.         We could suggest that Defra takes the lead, and limit our involvement to the provision of advice on a shortlist and the provision of a Chair for the interview panel. 

8.   Whether or not the Agency had an executive role in administering the appointments process, we would remain responsible foir advising on the suitability of candidates. It is here that the value we add to the process though our knowledge and experience across the full range of rural issues really counts.   There is a real risk, if the Agency is not otherwise involved in the recruitmentprocess, that Board members will find it more difficult to judge between candidates.

Changes – longer term

9.   The last appointments round produced an encouragingly high number of expressions of interest,   though this does not equate to high quality applicants.   In the event, few of these turned into hard applications.   The information provided with application forms, or the process, may have deterred potential applicants.   Some of those dropping out may not have expected the posts to be unpaid. Others may have been put off by the nature of the jobs described or by the reputation of committee work that some national park authorities still suffer.   These sort of issues are not amenable to immediate repair, as they involve tackling some quite fundamental and generic issues in relation to public appointments and to the role that national park authorities expect appointed members to have.

10.   National park authorities themselves have an important role in making positive changes to encourage public participation in their work. With the constraints outlined   above in mind we could work with park authorities to:

·         improve the material incentive for people to apply for appointment, taking into account the particular barriers that members of some target communities might have to face;

·         provide attractive roles for people with other commitments – for example by scheduling meetings at convenient times, reducing bureaucracy and information overload, and offering involvement in interesting programmes of National Park work;

·         run “open days” during which potential candidates could be introduced to the work and some of the staff of National Parks.   These events could be open for anyone interested in NPA membership. The aim would be to promote understanding of the importance of the members role, and to stimulate future applications;

·         hold interviews for potential appointees in the park concerned so that candidates have the option of spending part of the day discovering how the NPA functions.

11.   Beyond that, we need to press for better renumeration to Secretary of State appointees – perhaps on the same scale as Countryside Agency Board members.

Financial and staffing implications

12.  If the Agency was to take on the entire member recruitment role we would have to increase our staff input to deal with the parts of the process currently handled by Defra. Outsourcing some administration might free up some time but contract management and steering and work on the longer term aspects of improving recruitment performance would still need to be managed internally.   Defra would be able to reduce its administrative expenditure by a similar amount.

13.   We might contract out some of the more mechanical tasks. Costs for contracting out vacancy advertising and recruitment administration are estimated at around£75,000.   At least this would provide a properly defined standard of consultation and would avoid post hoc observations about whether the right process had been followed to attract good candidates.

14.   A full transfer of the recruitment administration task to Defra would release about 100 days of CA staff time. The reverse of this situation -   transferring the work completely to CA with no outsourcing   would require us to allocate an additional 160 days (See Appendix III).

Next steps

15.   Depending on the option chosen, we would be enter into further discussion with DEFRA and NPAs regarding both the short and longer term proposal for improved recruitment processes and job quality for Secretary of State appointees. 

Risks and mitigation measures

16.   In the event that the Agency was to take on more responsibility for member recruitment it is conceivable that, despite our best efforts,   we fail to deliver the improved quality and diversity of applicants for NPA member posts sought by Ministers.   It is important that we work to performance criteria agreed in advance with Defra.   These would cover the type and extent of advertising to be used, customer care standards, and desired candidate profiles.  

Annex 1 

Stages of the current appointments process for selection, interview & appointment of Secretary of State appointees to National Park Authorities (NPAs)

Annex 2

Using contractors to undertake advertising and administration

Task 1 : To undertake targeted and cost effective advertising of NPA vacancies in regional press

Costs: Based on 15cm x 3 column adverts in 10 key publications per park (8) £32 - 35,000.

Task 2: To administer all levels of the recruitment process (but not have any role in candidate selection beyond intial validation of applications) specifically:-

·         Receive vacancy lists, 

·         Plan, draft and arrange advertising,

·         Issue applicant information packs,

·         Receive, log and acknowledge application forms,

·         Validate applications and produce long list for consideration by CA,

·         Handle all post application correspondence with applicants including notifications of rejection,

·         Liaise with CA Board members, Defra and NPAs to arrange interview sessions for shortlisted candidates,

·         Deal with post interview correspondence including notifications of success (or otherwise)

·         Provide telephone “hotline” support for applicants throughout the recruitment process during normal working hours.

Costs: Estimated at £25-30,000 per annum

Total costs of outsourcing advertising and administration = about £60,000
Annex 3

Estimated current staff resources being applied by the Countryside Agency to NPA member recruitment 

Estimated staff resource need if administration etc carried out by Defra

Resultant saving if recruitment administration transferred to Defra

Value figures based on mean gross salary costs for affected grades over a 220 day working year.

Current Defra staff   input estimate  

[1]   Schedule 7 Para 4(1) of the 1995 Environment Act requires the Secretary of State to consult the Countryside Agency before appointing any person as member of a National Park Authority.

[2]  Figures in brackets assume 10 National Parks following confirmation of designation orders already submitted