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FAQs, advice and tips

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This section goes into the details of being involved in Walking for Health.

Please feel free to post a request for guidance or advice and we will try and respond to you.

You could also go the walk leader's / co-ordinator's forum for ideas and best practice.

Comments (2)

Comments

spreston

12 Oct 2011
 

OHQ data

We have approx 8 - 10 volunteer walk leaders in our group. A key issue is that currently the OHQ information is held by the scheme co-ordinator and 2 walk leaders, so we're aware of any walkers who may have specific health conditions if there's an incident on a walk. Should this data (which can be sensitive information) be distributed to all walk leaders and also any first aiders in our group and if so, would we need to obtain the permission of the walkers first?

Many thanks

Suzanne

robgornall

28 Oct 2011
 

OHQ Data

Thanks for your question Suzanne.

Regarding the OHQ data, we’re dealing with principles here rather than hard and fast rules. In principle, the data should only be shared on a “need to know” basis. The question then becomes: who needs to know?

Walk leaders / first aiders should know about any health conditions that any of their walkers have, so that they are aware of any likely problems that may arise and also to adjust the walks to accommodate the needs of their walkers. In that context, it would be appropriate to share the health data with the walk leaders and you would not need to ask permission from the walkers to do this.

However, the walk leaders would only need to know about the walkers on their own walks, not on other walks that they may have no connections with. So it depends on how your walking scheme is set up:

  • Do the individual leaders only lead on specific walks or do they lead on more than one walk (perhaps on a rota basis)? If they lead on several walks, then they would need to be aware of health conditions of walkers on all of the walks that they lead on.
  • Do individual walkers attend more than one regular walk? If so, then any relevant health data should be shared with the appropriate leaders.

 At the end of the day, you will need to share information in a manner that works best for your scheme. The bottom line is that all walk leaders should know about any health conditions amongst the walkers that are likely to attend their walks.

 I hope that helps to answer your query.  

 Dave Perry

Walking for Health Lead Advisor - Greater Manchester and South Lancashire

 

Rob Gornall, the Walking for Health team