For many officers, working for the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is more than just a job that pays their bills. Most National Park Authority officers are committed to working in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and fully believe in the National Parks movement. As such, they want to do their very best to make a positive difference to the National Park, its communities and visitors.
Having such a committed workforce is a great benefit to the National Park Authority and National Park alike. It helps to ensure we always aspire to deliver the highest standards possible.
Expectations of conduct
Staff are expected to adopt the National Park Authority's core values in all areas, and work to its standards of service. There is also a Code of Conduct for staff that all officers are expected to comply with. Staff must also follow the Authority's internal policies such as the Financial Regulations and others that guide the way we work such as our General Equality Duty and Data Protection Policies.
Monitoring performance and progress
For the Authority's staff to be as effective as possible in delivering the Authority's objectives, their work and performance is monitored on different levels throughout the year.
Conduct and performance is monitored informally through the Authority's management structure. Staff have regular 'one-to-one' catch up meetings with line managers and there are regular team and directorate meetings. These ensure any minor issues are ironed out throughout the year and that work objectives are on target.
All staff, from the Chief Executive down, have an annual appraisal meeting with their line manager. The Chief Executive's line manager is the chairman of the Authority. These review the officer's objectives from the previous year, set targets for the coming year and evaluate the staff member's performance in the current year. This ensures that members of staff continue to meet expectations and is in the best interests of both the National Park Authority and the National Park.
When we do well
We are always pleased to hear when we have done something particularly well. The comments forms at all National Park Centres are an easy way to record and submit your views. Alternatively you can contact the Authority's Complaints Officer - see the Compliments and complaints page for full details.
Receiving positive comments is always appreciated. We don't use them simply to congratulate ourselves or to make us feel good about the job we do. They are also important to help us recognise and learn from good practice so we can improve our future performance.
When we do badly
As mentioned above, we don't always get things right, but we do hope that such occasions are rare. However, we are realistic enough to know that mistakes or bad decisions will inevitably sometimes occur. When they do, we will do everything we can to put things right. We also aim to learn from our mistakes so that we don't make them again and to ensure we can improve our future performance.
As much as we enjoy receiving compliments about our work, we also want to hear from you when we get things wrong. Full details of what type of complaint you can make, how to complain and what happens next are available in our explanatory leaflet, How do I complain?, or on the Compliments and complaints page.
