Advisory Panel Minutes Thurs 11 th June 12-4pm Albert Embankment Attendees: Members: North and East Midlands region: Debbie Chesterman (Get Active in the Forest, Derbyshire); Melissa Taylor - Bolton Walk This Way ; Rachael Smith - South Kesteven District Council Central and South West region: Balraj Johal (Dudley Let s Get Walking Programme); Susan Blake (Dorchester Strollers, Dorset); Kim Spencer (Forest of Dean Walk 4 Health, Gloucestershire) Bernard Novell - Goring Gaps Walks Elaine Labrom - South Somerset District Council Apologies: Mel Brown (Fit Together, Norfolk) Lorraine Rasmussen (Durham County Council) London, South East and East of England region: Patricia Daniels (Bar Hill Health Walks, Cambridgeshire); Jenny Budd (Lewisham Healthy Walks); Debbie Peters Mill Hammersmith Jessica Neece - Camden Health Walks Walking for Health: Natalie Raperport, Training & Quality Assurance Manager Jackie Hayhoe, Programme Manager Simon Barnett, Director of Delivery & Development Nic Antonini, Walking for Health Database Project Manager Joanna Scott, Intelligence & Research Manager Dan Wiseman, Training & Quality Assurance Officer LASER (London, South East & East) Stuart Riddle, Training & Quality Assurance Officer CSWE (Central & South West) Annette Bell, Training & Quality Assurance Officer EMNE (East Midlands & North of England) Laura Brooks, Walking for Health Regional Development Officer CSWE (Central & South West) Luke Doyle, Walking for Health Support Officer
I. Welcome and introductions Jackie Hayhoe (JH) welcomed everyone and explained that the Scheme Coordinator Advisory Panel (SCAP) had merged with the Training Advisory Group (TAG). II. Moving forwards into 2015-2018 period Simon Barnett (SB) introduced himself as the Director of Delivery and Development at the Ramblers and explained that his role involved supporting around 28,000 Ramblers volunteers. SB thanked the panel members for their time and stressed how important the SCAP and TAG groups had been. Since April 2012 Walking for Health has achieved a great deal: Launched a new brand Re-launched training Recruited new trainers after inheriting a list of 700 active and inactive names from Natural England Built a new database* Re-launched accreditation which has led to consistency across the country, giving commissioners confidence in Walking for Health. Walking for Health is committed to a joint vision with Macmillan: Everyone has access to a short, free, friendly health walk close to where they live to help them become and stay more active. III. Priority themes - Four functional strategy areas Jackie Hayhoe launched a PowerPoint presentation on Walking for Health 2015 2018 which covered: Walking for Health vision Currently not reaching enough people from BME communities or younger people. The team has been working on an outcome framework How do we change people s behaviour? How do we support those who are totally inactive? Increased quality of all schemes How Walking for Health can be better integrated into NHS care pathways Increased sustainability of schemes Mapping accredited schemes Influencing commissioners
Improved volunteer satisfaction rate (currently at 94%) Funding for schemes There was a discussion on how to encourage health professionals to promote Walking for Health locally: Members of the panel discussed GP engagement with the scheme and how they could recognise walking as a physical activity more than it currently is. It was also mentioned that Walking for Health being free was a huge benefit as local free gym sessions are no longer available through the council. Recruiting volunteers was also raised in that some schemes find it difficult to recruit new volunteers. Experiences were shared in terms of working with organisations like the Ramblers and local volunteer bureaus. Tailoring training to specific community groups and charities linking with local schemes was seen as a helpful idea for the future. IV. Database and WRF update Jackie explained to members of the panel that there are some ongoing problems with the database and explained the reasons behind this. Nic Antonini (database manager) explained that currently most known issues had been fixed. One issue involving a number of accounts with shared emails (mostly husband and wife) which is resulting in missing walkers has now been resolved. Nic also mentioned that the main reporting function is working; however the historical data is slowly being imported. There is no confirmed date for this yet but this will be announced when we know. Jenny mentioned that she hadn t been receiving notifications from people joining their walks. NA agreed to look into this. The user guide has been updated to reflect the updates and improvements. Updates from the beginning of August regarding the database:- Users with the combined Web and Data admin role can now add walks, edit walk dates and mark people as walk leaders/volunteers. This role is useful for anyone other than the scheme coordinator who might coordinate data
entry and walk promotion. You can request a role upgrade for your users via the Scheme Contacts page on the People tab. Scheme coordinators can now delete risk assessments. Reports can now be run on progression walks as well as health walks. When entering a Walker Registration Form in the People tab we ve added a button to return you to the original page, rather than the next WRF. The [save register] button now saves the guests/children/notes section as well. Users can now change their allocated username to something more practical once they have logged in. Anonymised walkers won t display on walker lists anymore. The SSL security certificate has now been applied to the site, making it more secure. V. Training update Natalie gave a training update. Between April 2014 March 2015: There have been 9 cascade trainer sessions 113 cascade trainers have been trained There have been 312 training sessions altogether 2,221 volunteer walk leaders have been trained VI. Development Update JH handed out the new Welcome booklets which contains an ICE card, and explained to the group that when a coordinator orders 100 Walker Registration Forms they will receive 100 booklets. VII. TAG / SCAP Natalie discussed the format of future meetings with the panel and explained that future meetings will be chaired by herself and Charlene Simon (Walking for Health development manager). The terms of reference were agreed by the panel.
VIII. AOB Natalie thanked everyone for their time.