RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

October 9, 2006
BETTER WATER SAFETY EDUCATION NEEDED TO CUT DROWNINGS

Delegates at the National Water Safety Congress, which opened today, supported a call from the National Water Safety Forum for better swimming and water safety education for children in the UK.

Ralph Riley, Chairman of the National Water Safety Forum’s Swimming Safety Advisory Group and Chief Executive of the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management (ISRM), who gave the conference’s opening address, stated that 200,000 children in the UK currently leave primary school each year without the basic skills needed to survive in the water. He called upon the Government to rethink its policy on swimming in schools, highlighting the closure of an estimated 2,000 school swimming pools since 1972 and the funding constraints that make it difficult to provide new school pools.

Drowning is the third most common cause of accidental death among young people under the age of 16, claiming the lives of at least 50 children in the UK each year.

In response to the many preventable deaths of young people, highlighted by the tragic drowning of three young men in the Lake District last month, the Forum is calling for young people to be equipped with the necessary swimming skills, risk assessment experience and water safety education. Such skills would enable young people not only to enjoy and participate in physical activities such as swimming, watersports and other outdoor adventurous activities, but more importantly to save their own lives.

Peter Cornall, Head of Leisure Safety at RoSPA, which has organised the conference, said: “We support the call for better swimming and water safety education. Children and young people need to be equipped with the necessary skills and abilities to both save their lives and enable them to enjoy an active life.

“Increasing our children’s understanding of water safety issues and improving their swimming should go some way towards cutting the number of tragic and preventable drownings we experience in the UK each year.”

The Forum comprises RoSPA, ISRM, Royal Life Saving Society, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Royal Yachting Association, Amateur Rowing Association, Association of Inland Navigation Authorities and the National Beach Safety Council.

The National Water Safety Congress is being held at the Stratford Holiday Inn, Stratford-upon-Avon, today and tomorrow (Mon/Tue). It is being attended by representatives from across the leisure industry who have responsibility for water sites, including inland waters, swimming pools, beaches and marinas.
For more information on the congress, see www.rospa.com/water