Reviewing our Partnership Plan: Background information
This page has been updated to reflect delivery in the first three years (2018-2021) of the National Park Partnership Plan.
The National Park Partnership Plan sets out the overarching vision to guide how all those with a role in looking after the National Park will work together over five years to ensure a successful, sustainable future for this iconic place. The Plan guides the work of not just the National Park Authority but of all the partners involved in managing the area and whose work will make the overarching vision a reality. You can find out more about the Plan for 2018-23.
Indicators of Success
A suite of indicators was published with the Plan to establish whether it is delivering what it set out to achieve and having a positive effect on the National Park. Tracking and reporting on the identified Indicators of Success provides an annual snapshot of progress and is used to continually refine delivery against the Plan’s outcomes.
The Indicators are intentionally not exhaustive, instead focusing on key areas that are indicative of the outcomes, principles and priorities across the Plan. Reporting on the Indicators is intended to shed light on the total of our collective efforts, with action often needed in multiple areas and at all levels of policy and practice to see progress against targets.
Purpose of this Review
This Review presents the findings for the first three years of the Plan’s delivery, from April 2018 to March 2021. It compiles new and existing information, sourced from the National Park Authority and delivery partners, to report on the Indicators of Success and their targets. This of course does not represent everything delivery partners would consider in progressing the Plan, something no single Review could do; as with the Indicators themselves the Review is strategic in nature.
The National Park Authority is the author of this Review, recognising our statutory purpose to ensure that the National Park aims are collectively achieved in a co-ordinated way. Nonetheless, it is of course the collective work of the delivery partners that is needed to deliver against the outcomes in the Plan.
Changes in our operating environment
One of the cross-cutting findings presented in this Review is the scale of the significant local, regional and global changes seen since the National Park Partnership Plan was first published in March 2018. This includes, but is not limited to, the declaration of the Global Climate Emergency and the Nature Crisis, the UK’s exit from the European Union, and the wide-reaching impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had a clear impact on delivery by all partners since March 2020 and has also impacted this Review in various ways, including:
- activity undertaken during 2020/21
- how activity was monitored during the pandemic and associated lockdowns
- a delay in data / information becoming available
While it is crucial to recognise the impact of the pandemic, for the purpose of this Review it is important that we don’t assume the changes seen in Year 3 (2020/21) are related to the pandemic. As much as possible in reviewing the Indicators we have looked at what is behind the findings, trying to identify the most significant things impeding, enabling or affecting progress. Focusing on these ‘drivers’ of progress has informed the way we categorised our main findings.
The 2018-21 Review provides more detail on progress in the first three years of the Plan.