Pools in peril

Simon Griffiths looks at why pools are in peril and what the consequences might be

In November last year, Ella and I attended a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Swimming. Three facts jumped out at me, two positive and one less so.

First, there are parliamentarians from both houses who are supportive of swimming, both in pools and outdoors. Second, swimming is loved and seen as important by a wide range of groups and individuals from around the country. Third, swimming has struggled in recent years and faces a range of future challenges.

Swim England report that since 2009, we’ve had a net loss of 482 pools. The majority of those losses have happened since 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and energy crisis putting pool operators under increased financial strain. These cost pressures look set to continue, with further pool closures almost inevitable.

Pool closures have real-world and possibly life-and-death consequences. One impact is that it makes it harder for schools to provide swimming lessons and help children learn basic water safety and self-rescue skills. In December, Swim England reported that “only 70% of year 7 pupils (age 11-12) can swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25m.” This is a drop from 77% the previous year and is linked to pool closures during the pandemic. The figures for younger children have improved since last year but are still behind pre-pandemic levels.

Ashley Jones, Water Safety and Drowning Prevention manager at Swim England, points out that these averages hide huge discrepancies. Children from the poorest families are around half as likely to be able to swim as those from wealthier ones.

Meanwhile, data from the National Child Mortality Database paints a depressing picture of year-on-year increases in deaths of children and young people due to drowning, from 20 in 2019/20 to 41 in 2022/23. In younger children (under five), most of these deaths occurred at home in the bath or other residential water. But of the eight drowning deaths in older children (15-17), seven were in natural inland waters. While we can’t say for certain that pool closures results in more open water drowning deaths, the pattern is certainly suspicious.

Chief Fire Officer Dawn Whittaker, who was Chair of the National Water Safety Forum until the end of 2024, says the loss of pool space and decline in swimming skills combined with growing numbers of people heading to open water to cool off in hot weather is a “ticking timebomb”.

In an article published in Emergency Services Times, Dawn calls for a funded national water safety strategy with a minister made responsible. She points out that Scotland, Wales and Ireland already have this, but not England.

More generally, Swim England’s Value of Swimming report says that swimming generated more than £2.4 billion of social value in 2022 through improved life satisfaction, better physical and mental health and even reduced crime.

While the enthusiasm for swimming among MPs is positive, there’s a lot that needs doing to secure a sustainable future for the activity. As ever, let your elected representatives know that swimming is something you care about and will vote for. Do what you can to keep pools open – swim in your local pool more often and spend money in their café, for example, or join the committee of your local lido. Encourage more people learn to swim and make beginners welcome in your groups. Finally, sign up to the newsletter from the National Water Safety Forum to stay informed and possibly discover other ways to make a difference.

Sign up to the newsletter from the National Water Safety Forum at nationalwatersafety.org.uk/news