REVIEW, REFLECT, RENEW

BY CIARA CARBERRY, NPWS DIRECTOR

Ireland’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has a proud history, and for a relatively small organisation of a few hundred people, carries a complex range of responsibilities, from significant policy and advisory functions, to operational responsibilities in the National Parks, conservation, enforcement, licensing, biodiversity and as a statutory consultee on planning.

The organisation has been sustained through many years and decades by truly dedicated and expert people. For them, the past and current members of the NPWS team and their colleagues and allies outside the organisation, the Strategic Action Plan for the Renewal of the National Parks and Wildlife Service represents a step-change in momentum, building on the work of many years, and the very significant gains for the organisation in the past two budgets, which brought NPWS funding in 2022, for the first time since the financial crisis, back to pre-2008 levels.

The Plan fulfils a commitment in the Programme for Government to review the remit, status and funding of the NPWS. That independent, multi-phase Review was completed in February 2022 and culminated in fifteen key recommendations. The Strategic Action Plan is designed to deliver on those recommendations, and its implementation is a key priority for Minister O’Brien, Minister of State Noonan, and for Government. An immediate outcome is the THE ACTION establishment of the NPWS, PLAN SETS OUT (currently a division of the A SUSTAINABLE Department of Housing, Local MODEL FOR Government and Heritage), as an executive agency within that Department. Significant funding (a €55m cumulative increase in ENSURING APPROPRIATE STAFFING investment over the three years of the LEVELS FOR plan) is provided to help deliver the THE NPWS renewal programme, supported by LONG INTO THE the accelerated filling of critical posts across the organisation, enhancing FUTURE. NPWS capacity to deliver visitor services at national parks and nature reserves, address wildlife crime, care for our designated sites and deliver top-class scientific advice on nature and biodiversity.

The Action Plan sets out a sustainable model for ensuring appropriate staffing levels for the NPWS long into the future. Structurally, it delivers a dedicated top management team, distinct mission statement, priorities and resources for the NPWS, while maintaining close direct reporting and accountability links to the Department, Minister and Government, and eliminating duplication by capitalising on efficiencies in terms of access to Departmental corporate service, expertise and supports.

The end-result will see an NPWS that is more resilient, more stable, with a stronger identity of its own, better able to drive and lead change. The organisation will have clearer core priorities, and better direction of resources toward those priorities, clearer communications, both internally and externally, and a much stronger focus on customer service and delivery for the public and the citizen.

STRUCTURE The Action Plan fundamentally changes the NPWS internal structure to six new directorates clustered around functional responsibilities: • Scientific Advice and Research • Nature Conservation • Parks and Nature Reserves • Engagement, Corporate and Specialist Supports • Legislation and Licensing • Wildlife Enforcement and Nature Protection

Each is headed up by a director, reporting to the Director General of the NPWS. Collectively, the Directors and the Director General

OUR ENGAGEMENT WITH NGOS AND form the NPWS Management Board. Already, we have seen very CIVIL SOCIETY significant increases in NPWS staff GROUPS IS CRITICALLY as a result of the Review. At the end

IMPORTANT TO THE of June 2022, the number of staff

DELIVERY OF OUR MISSION IN NPWS. in the organisation had increased by more than 25% over 2021 levels, with an emphasis on the filling of critical posts. Over the coming 12 months we will see further significant recruitment of mission critical staff.

THE ROAD AHEAD While the NPWS is in a time of unprecedented change, the NPWS of the future will continue to be guided by those core values that have always made the organisation special:-. • A deep love of nature, and a commitment to its care and safeguarding. • Teamwork and excellence, and a well-grounded pride in our professionalism and scientific integrity. • A strong identity, and an authoritative voice for nature • A renewed commitment to customer focus, to transparency and accountability in our decisionmaking, to teamwork and mutual respect.

STAKEHOLDERS AND PARTNERS A key priority in the Action Plan is to address the way in which NPWS interacts with partners and stakeholders in the community and the wider sector. Of course, the NPWS remains part of a government department, and is accountable to the government. So, the NPWS is very different from perhaps an NGO or a civil society organisation and is not expected to behave like one. It serves a different purpose and has a different relationship with the state. We have some really effective and dedicated civil society groups in the environmental space, but that is a discrete space to where a public body sits.

Our engagement with NGOs and civil society groups is critically important to the delivery of our mission in NPWS. The Action Plan addresses the need for much better and more structured communications in this regard. The establishment of a structured stakeholder forum will be completed by early Autumn 2022. This will support a more regular and constructive engagement with the sector as a whole.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? The time ahead will be a challenging period of disruption and opportunity. Change is difficult, even where we know that it is necessary, and even where it is welcome.

In the NPWS context, the Review brought a very clear-eyed look at the realities and highlighted the high level of support in the organisation for profound change.

In leadership terms, over the past twelve months, five new directors have been appointed to NPWS, and are already working with the Director General as a management board. Recruitment for a sixth Director (to lead the Engagement, Corporate and Specialist Supports directorate) is underway, and that position is expected to be filled by Autumn 2022.

This provides a framework for collective senior-management accountability and decision-making, collegiality and mutual support. As the organisation navigates the turbulence of a profound programme of change, strong and authentic leadership from the top of the organisation will be hugely valuable.

Development of a coherent vision, a shared mental picture of the future and a real and shared sense of what the NPWS will be after the changes have been delivered will be a key orientation for the road ahead, especially in so geographically and functionally diverse an organisation.

And how can we create a new organisation, with a new vision, if we don’t also create the possibility of actually behaving in the new ways? Removing obstacles to change, both those that are directly obstructive and those that resist and protect against dealing with direct obstacles will be a key challenge in the months and years ahead.

We are already seeing practical changes in the NPWS, with better access to equipment, IT facilities and other visible improvements. These changes bring recognition, positive reinforcement of new behaviours, and highlight more open and professional models of decision-making.

With the ambitious programme of recruitment that is underway at all grades, ensuring that leadership development and training support the new approach is important – the critical messages our people receive, especially via formative experiences in induction and on promotion, must be consistent with the new vision and model that the organisation is working so hard to create.

A focus on what the organisation is already doing well is a good starting point to build future excellence. The people in NPWS are a resource for good and will, if well-supported, contribute enormously to the future design of the organisation. In other words, we can draw on the potential of our people, if we are wise, to end up with something even better than what we have planned.

However, models of change always seem to envisage a neat linear progression, planning each next step in a thoroughly thought-through fashion from the outset.

In the real, public-policy context, where interventions are aimed at bringing about complex changes in human behaviour on the very broad, societal scale, there is a degree of folly in believing

 Minister of State for

Heritage & Electoral Reform

Malcolm Noonan A FOCUS ON WHAT THE ORGANISATION IS ALREADY DOING WELL IS A GOOD STARTING POINT TO BUILD FUTURE EXCELLENCE. that any change model can be applied in a tidy sequential fashion, moving through steps one after the other, following a clear and well-designed pathway that has been determined in advance. In the environment where NPWS operates, issues inevitably have a variety of aspects that only emerge as changes begin to be implemented, and plans may need to be re-designed while the system is in motion. Problems in a system as complex as nature, biodiversity, climate, even wildlife protection, have a myriad of factors that all influence each other, and interventions in these spaces are rife with unintended consequences. The temptation to remain in the safety of measuring and controlling what is concretely measurable and controllable, to our ultimate detriment, can be very strong. In reality, a more flexible, less certain, less designed-in-advance approach will be needed. Dare I say organic, fluid and responsive? It has been said that in the final analysis, change sticks when it seeps into the bloodstream of the organisation, rooted in social norms and shared values. It simply becomes “the way we do things around here,” In the times we live in, we need the NPWS to be strong, resilient, accountable, fit for purpose and able to look forward. Although we have a clear framework, timeframe and roadmap to follow in the Action Plan, this will be an interesting journey for the NPWS. Ultimately, it is about making us more effective, both as a team and as individuals. And NPWS will own this process - for the first time in a long time, we are the authors of our own destiny. More than ever in 2022, the future of the NPWS looks brighter. And, as a consequence, so does the future for nature in Ireland.