Walk Leaders Handbook

UPDATED  21st October 2020, SROH

General Guidance to Walk Leaders on preparing and leading a walk

 The Club has a set of local 1:25000 maps which you can borrow to help with planning: these are held by the Walks Organiser. There are a large number of local walking guidebooks with routes on the Mendips, Quantocks, Forest of Dean and Cotswolds and club members will have copies of these. We are willing to train anyone who would like more experience of planning walks and once a year we plan to run a training walk intended to enhance map planning skills.

For those new to leading the best way to learn is to pair up with an experienced leader and plan out a route together. Do ring a committee member if you would like any support in planning your walk. We encourage all leaders to walk out their route in advance, preferably within two weeks of the walk date so that hazards and potentially blocked paths can be circumnavigated. We expect leaders to encourage a volunteer to be ‘back marker’ and that leader and back marker have mobile numbers to call in the event of emergency. It is hoped Leaders can give their mobile number to walkers in advance so that problems on transport and walking can be minimized.

We try to strike a balance between not being too demanding of walk leaders and ensuring leaders provide the ‘duty of care’ that is expected of us. When preparing for a walk we hope leaders will carry out a range of checks to minimize risks. Although walking is low risk there can still be issues on walks and incidents do happen. Crossing busy roads is a good example – it’s so easy in a group of walkers to just follow the person in front, so if the risk assessment highlights a busy road crossing this should prompt the walk leader to remind the group on appropriate behaviour at the road. Additionally we need to protect our leaders as our walks are organised walks, those who organise and lead them are regarded in law as having an ‘enhanced duty of care’ to the people who attend. We therefore ask walk leaders to use the following check list when planning a walk to make sure we minimize risks: you can download this for each walk.

Risk Management document for each walk

Date:                           Leader:

Hazard	How can the risk be controlled?	What further action is needed to control the risk?
Hypothermia / exhaustion / heat exhaustion	Brief walkers at start on appropriate clothing / protection / sun block / drinking fluids. Check all have right equipment.	Keep eye on walkers and ensure group keeps together.
Not identifying risks en-route: slips and trips, traffic, vegetation etc.	Walk leaders walk out route in advance, note potential hazards and warn walkers of hazards in advance. Advice on weatherproof clothing and boots provided on web.	Walk leader during walk reinforces advice. Leader and back marker carry mobile phones to summon assistance (phones are charged and switched on and numbers known to each other!).
Weather	Check weather forecast and abort walk if dangerous.	If conditions worsen, consider aborting the walk at appropriate points.
Slips and trips	Check weather and warn via website of walk conditions.	Remind those who need them to bring poles. Give those with balance / impairment issues time to negotiate hazards.
Traffic and cyclists collision risk	Advise group of risk areas where to take particular care. Walkers warn others of approaching traffic/ cycles. Leader and back marker wear hi visibility vests where route and time of day demands it.	Leader reminds of safe behaviour around roads and shared cycle routes at start.
Obstructing vegetation	Identify on walk out and devise safe route / bring secateurs.	Check en-route for hazards and avoid / bring secateurs.
Animals/ farm livestock	No dogs with groups (except assistance dogs). On walk out identify risks and plan safe routes	On walk advise avoiding strategy and walk quietly as a tight knit group.
Areas of water/ streams	Plan route to avoid streams, other than very shallow. Plan route to keep away from open water	Advise on safe passage.
individuals with potential disability	Walk descriptions provided in advance for walkers to self-identify their limitations and appropriateness of walk. Note any who inform leader of disability and advise on support.	Keep eye on those with disability as appropriate (particular awareness of hearing and sight impairment may be needed). Expectation of walkers telling leader in advance of any heath issue affecting ability to walk. Rest as appropriate.
Injury from fall	Plan route to avoid steep or slippery slopes. Walkers advised to carry their own first aid kit and take responsibility for minor injuries. Emergency contact telephone numbers to be carried by walkers.	Website should carry advice on whether walking poles are desirable for the walk.
Other hazards specific to walk

To encourage development of even better practice group leaders who have an incident on one of their walks are encouraged to report the details to the committee. You can download this form

Reporting incident of Health and Safety

Date and time of incident
Location of incident
Name of walk leader(s)
Names and contact details of witnesses
Description of the incident: What happened? Who was involved?
Description of actions taken by group to solve the problem including any first aid or hospitalization
Follow up actions: what and by whom? eg phone call / card / report to insurer