About Walking for Health

• Summary
• History and impact
• Is WfH sustainable?
• Into the future
• Replicating the WfH model
• Support from professional bodies

Summary

Walking for Health (WfH) encourages more people to become physically active in their local communities.

We support the largest network of health walk schemes across England, offering regular short walks over easy terrain with trained walk leaders.

WfH walks are free and particularly aimed at people who don’t take much exercise.

WfH promotes and sets the standards for led health walks. The walks make it possible for people to get out and be physically active in their local natural spaces. This brings many benefits for both the individual walkers and their communities. The most important benefits are improved physical and mental health.

With WfH support, health walks are:

• developed in local areas
• led by trained volunteers
• supported and funded through local partnerships
• promoted and insured by the national centre

WfH currently supports more than 600 local schemes with over 75,000 participants. The national centre provides information and resources to support local schemes.

History and impact

The concept of health walks was started by an Oxfordshire GP, Dr William Bird MBE, in 1995.

When WfH was launched in 2000 not many people knew what health walks were. Walking was not considered a serious form of exercise. 10 years later, the benefits of short, regular, brisk walks are widely understood. The Department of Health now recognises health walks as an effective and sustainable way of improving the nation’s health.

In 2005, Oxford Brookes University carried out a national evaluation of Walking for Health. Findings included:

• Schemes attract a significant proportion of people who did little or no exercise prior to joining the health walks.
• The majority of walkers remain committed to their local health walk scheme with a very low drop-out rate.

WfH began a comprehensive evaluation system in 2007, based on an Outdoor Health Questionnaire – that meets NICE requirements – currently completed by all new walkers in 90% of schemes. Data is entered on a national database.

Is Walking for Health sustainable?

The secret to Walking for Health's success is that walk schemes are delivered locally and at their heart are the volunteers that give up their time to lead walks.

WfH initially funded 205 schemes in areas of high health need for 3 years until 2005. More than 50% of these are still going, and the number of schemes has grown to 600 across the country.

In its first decade, WfH has grown and evolved, developing resources and structures to ensure the sustainability of schemes. These include:

• Free walk leader training using cascade training model.
• Outreach work with hard-to-reach groups.
• Accreditation.
• National resources – website, learning network, e-newsletters, publicity material.
• Regional support teams.

Into the future

WfH is still the only body supporting the provision of free, regular, led health walks at beginner level. The social contact is, for many, the most important aspect of the walks and the reason the retention rate is so high.  The need for such walks continues to grow and word of mouth remains a very effective form of recruitment. All this ensures a constant supply of new walkers.

Many schemes have become constituted so that, even if the paid co-ordinator leaves, the scheme can continue and can apply for funding in their own right.

In recognition of the need health walks are meeting, Department of Health provided funding for WfH for two years. The short-term aim was to increase the number of people walking for health, particularly sedentary adults. The long-term aim was to ensure WfH achieves sustainability through local funding and support with minimal central investment.

On 1 April 2012 the national centre of Walking for Health was divested from Natural England to Britain's leading walking charity, the Ramblers, in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support. Read more.

Replicating the WfH model

Health walks have shown to be replicable in a very wide variety of settings.  Many schemes have been ‘mainstreamed’ with scheme co-ordinators employed by local authorities or Primary Care Trusts. WfH has good channels of communication so that major achievements are broadcast and replicated elsewhere.

Schemes - which range in size from large local-authority-run schemes to small volunteer-led schemes - work with an enormous variety of different partners including:

• Government initiatives, eg SureStart.
• Countryside agencies, eg National Nature Reserves and National Parks.
• GP surgeries – GPs, practice nurses and specialist nurses.
• Charities and voluntary bodies, eg National Trust, Age UK, Mind, the Ramblers.
• Community interest groups, eg Health Exchange West Midlands.
• Private sector – workplaces, nursing and residential homes.

The health walk model is flexible and easily replicated for any particular group, be it general public, frail elderly, diabetics, heart patients etc. In addition to using WfH resources, partners market the schemes through their own communication channels thus ensuring information reaches those who can most benefit from health walks.

WfH has flourished during its first decade. Health walks schemes continued to develop after the initial grants ended and the number of schemes, walkers and trained walk leaders has grown consistently.

No other physical activity programme has been as successful over such a long period.

Support from professional bodies

Walking for Health has been endorsed by the British Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation (BACR) (pdf) and the Medical Protection Society (MPS) (pdf).

The British Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation endorses the Walking for Health programme. The Association commends appropriate walking as part of a comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation programme.

The Medical Protection Society (MPS) - known to every GP in the country - endorsed the Walking for Health programme and the concept of healthy walking in a statement which it issued in September 2001.

The statement will reassure many GPs of the benefits and low risks associated with 'walking for health' schemes.

Extracts include: Brisk walking is an ideal form of exercise... The risks of walking are low and the ground rules which GPs need to explain to patients are straightforward and easy to grasp... No paperwork is required from GPs... The chance of a GP being sued if a patient comes to harm from participating in WfH is minute.

MPS is a worldwide mutual association of 150,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals. Members look to MPS for help and advice as well as for the protection and legal defence of their professional reputations. Statements issued by MPS provide members with carefully considered advice.