Require schools to provide annual swimming lessons
- 27 Signatures
(Estimated Final Signatures: 63 - 1 added in the past 24hrs)
Too many people die from drowning every year including an alarming number of children. Despite swimming requirements in the curriculum, many children do not learn to swim confidently or even enough to save their own life. I lost my own son to drowning due to this lack of swimming ability.
Found: I’d like to introduce a requirement for schools to provide annual swimming lessons as part of the physical
Mar. 23 2024
Source Page: More than 300 swimming pools to benefit from £60 million to support long-term futureFound: More than 300 swimming pools to benefit from £60 million to support long-term future
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which leisure centres have been recipients of the funding under the Swimming Pool Support Fund.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to swimming pools, as swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing access to leisure facilities lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities.
In 2023/24, the Government provided over £60 million in additional funding to support operating costs and help improve energy efficiency of facilities through the Swimming Pool Support Fund, delivered via Sport England. In total, the Swimming Pool Support Fund (£60 million exchequer, £20 million of Sport England National Lottery funding) will fund 442 individual facilities and 788 individual pools across 269 Local Authorities by March 2025.
Further details of local authorities and swimming pools/leisure centres awarded funding from Phase I and Phase II of the Swimming Pool Support Fund are available on Sport England’s website at:
https://www.sportengland.org/news/swimming-pool-support-fund-keeps-leisure-centres-afloat
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the Swimming Pool Support Fund on (a) the Copthall pools and (b) other leisure facilities in the Hendon constituency.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The government recognises the importance of ensuring public access to swimming pools, as swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities. In 2023/24, the Government has provided over £60 million additional funding to support operating costs and help improve energy efficiency of facilities through the Swimming Pool Support Fund, delivered via Sport England.
Announcement of successful Swimming Pool Support Fund (SPSF) Phase I revenue funding awards was made by Sport England and on gov.uk on 4 November 2023. The fund was significantly oversubscribed and as a result we were unfortunately not able to fund all centres who applied. The criteria considered a range of factors including: financial need; the risk of closure; the proximity to other swimming pools providing public swimming access, and the level of demand for the facility.
Nov. 04 2023
Source Page: Nearly 200 leisure centres supported by Swimming Pool Support FundFound: Nearly 200 leisure centres supported by Swimming Pool Support Fund
Nov. 04 2023
Source Page: Nearly 200 leisure centres supported by Swimming Pool Support FundFound: Nearly 200 leisure centres supported by Swimming Pool Support Fund
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of school children leave school being able to swim at least 25 metres; and what proportion of those children are (1) Black, and (2) Asian.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2022/23 reports that 70.5% of pupils in year 7 say they can swim 25 metres unaided. Information is not published for demographic data for individual school years, but data for years 7-11 show that 52% of black children and 57.3% of Asian children report being able to swim 25 metres unaided. This is compared with 82.8% of white British children in years 7-11.
The department does not collect data on schools’ access to and use of swimming pools. The government recognises challenges to pool operators and is providing over £60 million to local authorities in England through the Swimming Pool Support Fund. The fund will keep swimming pools and leisure centres open, as well as investing in renovations to boost energy efficiency, reduce future operating costs and improve sustainability. The department is supporting schools to operate their swimming pools effectively through the Opening School Sport Facilities programme, worth up to £57 million over three years. Over 200 school pools have already benefited from this funding.
Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many local authority swimming pools have closed in each year since 2015.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is clear on the importance of ensuring public access to swimming pools, as swimming is a great way for people of all ages to stay fit and healthy. The responsibility of providing this access lies at Local Authority level, and the Government continues to encourage Local Authorities to support swimming facilities. We have also confirmed an additional £60 million support package for swimming pools in 2023/24, which is targeted at addressing cost pressures facing public swimming pool providers and helping make facilities sustainable in the long-term.
276 local authority swimming pools have closed since 2015. The breakdown per year is as follows:
2015: 40
2016: 36
2017: 31
2018: 23
2019: 31
2020: 38
2021: 26
2022: 28
2023: 23
These numbers should be considered in the context of facility provision within the local area. Facilities may close for a number of reasons: this can include the rationalisation of multiple older facilities into a modern, better located facility. In the same period from 2015-2023, 245 local authority swimming pools opened.
Data is stored by facility type (e.g. pool, health and fitness gym, or sports hall) rather than “leisure centre.” From 2015, approximately 261 local authority owned sites which had one or more pools, main halls, or health and fitness gyms, closed either fully or partially (where a facility within the site, including a pool or gym, may have closed). By region the figures are as follows:
East Midlands: 26
Eastern: 21
London: 26
North East: 29
North West:41
South East: 43
South West: 21
West Midlands: 29
Yorkshire and the Humber: 25
At the same time, new facilities were constructed at 242 comparable sites.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools do not have access to a swimming pool.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2022/23 reports that 70.5% of pupils in year 7 say they can swim 25 metres unaided. Information is not published for demographic data for individual school years, but data for years 7-11 show that 52% of black children and 57.3% of Asian children report being able to swim 25 metres unaided. This is compared with 82.8% of white British children in years 7-11.
The department does not collect data on schools’ access to and use of swimming pools. The government recognises challenges to pool operators and is providing over £60 million to local authorities in England through the Swimming Pool Support Fund. The fund will keep swimming pools and leisure centres open, as well as investing in renovations to boost energy efficiency, reduce future operating costs and improve sustainability. The department is supporting schools to operate their swimming pools effectively through the Opening School Sport Facilities programme, worth up to £57 million over three years. Over 200 school pools have already benefited from this funding.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many schools are using pop-up swimming pools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Sport England’s Active Lives Children and Young People Survey 2022/23 reports that 70.5% of pupils in year 7 say they can swim 25 metres unaided. Information is not published for demographic data for individual school years, but data for years 7-11 show that 52% of black children and 57.3% of Asian children report being able to swim 25 metres unaided. This is compared with 82.8% of white British children in years 7-11.
The department does not collect data on schools’ access to and use of swimming pools. The government recognises challenges to pool operators and is providing over £60 million to local authorities in England through the Swimming Pool Support Fund. The fund will keep swimming pools and leisure centres open, as well as investing in renovations to boost energy efficiency, reduce future operating costs and improve sustainability. The department is supporting schools to operate their swimming pools effectively through the Opening School Sport Facilities programme, worth up to £57 million over three years. Over 200 school pools have already benefited from this funding.