THE MISSING PIECE IN THE JIGSAW

Getting more children to learn to swim

Following the euphoria of Team GB’s success at the Beijing Olympics now has never been a better time to encourage young people to get more involved in sport and get active. Swimming in particular is riding high as a result of double gold medallist Rebecca Adlington, so the Government’s £140 million investment to make swimming free for all by 2012 could not of been better timed, and should provide the much-needed catalyst to promote further active participation in swimming, not only for sport and London 2012, but for health, fun and safety reasons. But will it?

As Local Authorities prepare the first stage of their funding submissions for the 15th September deadline, Steve Franks, STA’s Operations Director questions here if the Government has missed one fundamental piece of the ‘free swimming’ jigsaw by not understanding that swimming is unlike any other sport, in that it requires a person to learn a skill before they can participate.

The proposals to introduce free swimming form part of the London Olympics legacy plans to get 2 million people more active by 2012. The important words here are ‘more active’.

Swimming is unlike any other sport. It is unique in that it requires a person to learn a skill before they can participate in the sport. Therefore, to encourage people to become ‘more active’ in swimming, more people need to be given the opportunity to learn how to swim. The proposals under the £140 million free swimming programme have failed to address this fundamental point – ‘learning how to swim’ is the missing and arguably the most important piece of this jigsaw.

Parts one and two of the funding allocation* only relate to free admission into public swimming pools; the STA would have preferred to have seen some of this money allocated to providing free or subsidised swimming lessons to enable those who can’t swim to also benefit from this programme. This could also have been matched with some type of imaginative grant aid scheme to enable individuals to access funding to train to become swimming teachers, therefore building on the potential to create a meaningful and sustained legacy. In essence, yes this funding will make those who can already swim more active; but sadly the Government appears to have missed an opportunity by failing to fully appreciate that the teaching of swimming is significantly different to the sport of swimming, and that the feeder pathway into the competitive swimming structure and/or a local swimming club is linked directly to a learn to swim programme. Without any learn to swim programmes there are no future swimming Olympians and therefore consideration should be given to allocating part of this funding to support more sustainable swimming teaching programmes and training of volunteer's to encourage even greater participation in swimming, particularly from those who are unable to access the sport.

Already Local Authorities are beginning to expressed their concerns over the free swimming scheme, saying that if they sign-up for the funding, they could be left having to find a considerable amount of extra money to fund the scheme. One senior councillor even expressed his concerns publicly; speaking in the Shropshire Star, Councillor Peter Nutting, leader of Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council said: “We’ve got to think about it comprehensively across Shropshire. There are some opportunities, but also some difficulties.” “I am really worried that the cost of actually implementing the scheme, which sounds a wonderful idea, will be quite expensive – between £200,000 and £300,000 annually across Shropshire. That’s money that has got to come from the taxpayer. It does seem another case of the government putting forward a scheme which looks good, but taking money away with the other hand.”

The announcement by government of £140 million sounds like a significant amount of money, and it is for swimming which should be applauded, however, it is so vitally important that this one opportunity for investment over the next four years is spent wisely and is used to break down the barriers to participation, and to encourage and help more people to learn how to swim so they too can benefit from the opportunities this investment presents - thus becoming ‘more active’.

Notes to editor:

1. The Swimming Teachers' Association (STA) is a registered charity founded in 1932; with the charitable objective of ‘preserving human life by the teaching of swimming, lifesaving and survival techniques’. The STA receives no Government funding or support, yet have experienced incredible success over the last few years, growing a membership base of 5,800.

As a major organisation concerned with swimming and water safety, the STA position themselves at the forefront of raising standards. Along with being the only organisation that includes water safety in every element of its swimming teaching, STA is also the only organisation that insists its swimming teachers can perform a rescue.

Further information can be found at: http://www.sta.co.uk

2. *How is the £140 million funding being allocated?
Local Authorities are finalising their submissions for the first allocation of funding for the 15th September deadline, which will see the Government providing £15m each year between 2009 and 2011 to make swimming free for over-60s. Local Authorities will be allocated funding according to the size of the local over-60 population.

A further £25m has also been set aside in the second allocation for the provision of free swimming for under-16s, and Local Authorities who choose to participate in making swimming free for over-60s will also be invited to submit an expression of interest in the under-16s scheme.

Allocations three and four will provide funds for the modernisation of pool provision with a total of £35m earmarked by the government. The third allocation will offer a one-off capital grant in 2008/09 to Local Authorities participating in the first two initiatives. Local Authorities will be awarded a share of £10m according to their geographic population make up.

The final allocation will provide £25m capital per year in 2009-10 and 2010-11 to modernise pool provision, and will be administered by Sport England on the government's behalf. Those Local Authorities committed to offering free swimming will be invited to submit their cost plans for the fourth allocation by mid-October.

For further editorial information, please contact Samantha Stewart at Imagine Communications, on 01746 763576 or email: s.stewart@imagine-comms.co.uk

The Swimming Teachers' Association (STA) is a registered charity founded in 1932; with the charitable objective of..."the preservation of human life by the teaching of swimming, lifesaving and survival techniques."

This release was published on openPR.