Thanks, Wesley Smits.
The sticking point which I am trying to address is 'multiple h1 headings with the same value', therefore, I think maybe I could of phrased the question better. This is the amended question:
So is having more than one h1 on a page with the same value going to have a negative SEO impact?
Currently in the templates, our duplicate h1 would be way further down in the page structure and therefore the first h1 creates the top level heading and the second the heading for a section lower down the page.
Any thoughts on this?