Chamber and committees

RoSPA submission of 7 December 2021

PE1891/D - RoSPA submission of 7 December 2021

I write in regards to the above petition submitted to the Scottish Parliament, which states:

“Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that all children will have had the opportunity to learn to swim by making it a statutory requirement to provide lessons in the primary school curriculum.”

It is devastating to note that, on average, 96 people fatally drown in Scotland every year – a number disproportionate to the population rate in comparison to both our UK and European neighbours.

Although RoSPA is supportive of all children having the opportunity to learn to swim, we would like to highlight the following points in regards to this petition:

• Swimming has been a statutory part of the national curriculum for physical education in England since 1994. Despite this, the most recent data found that almost one in four was unable to swim the statutory 25 metres when leaving primary school. This is largely affected by both family affluence and location
• Water Safety is more than just swimming lessons and should include a suite of interventions. The World Health Organization notes that in addition to basic swimming, water safety lessons and rescue skills are needed to help reduce drowning
• The ability to swim does not reduce the impact of cold water shock, which is an all-year hazard in Scotland’s inland and coastal waterways
• Learning to swim in a swimming pool is not the same as swimming outdoors with the added hazards such as tides, currents, debris, etc. Programmes like Swim Safe are highly useful in enabling children to experience swimming outdoors in a safe environment with trained lifeguards.

We would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide our opinion on this important matter and would be happy to provide further information on swimming and other aspects of water safety, and in particular, Scotland’s Drowning Prevention Strategy.

In the meantime, RoSPA is happy to support swimming lessons in the curriculum with additional education on essential topics such as cold water shock and water rescue skills.