Olympic swimmers including Adam Peaty, Ellie Simmonds and Matt Richards have launched a new pop-up pool programme at UK schools aimed at boosting low swimming attainment rates.
Fully functioning temporary pools will be placed at schools in areas where a large proportion of children are unable to swim, starting in the Black Country in the West Midlands, one of the worst-affected areas in the country.
The scheme, launched on Wednesday by Speedo Swim United, comes as statistics from Sport England show that nearly one in three children in the UK leave primary school unable to swim, with numbers higher in more deprived areas.
Without intervention, the figure could rise to 60% of children leaving school unable to swim in 2025, after coronavirus lockdowns hindered swimming lessons, the data suggests.
Ian Carey, CEO of Active Black Country, which is helping to deliver the programme, said the new scheme was “an SOS”.
“We estimated that at the end of the last academic year there were 10,000 pupils who left year six unable to be safe in water,” he said. “Pool operators are facing huge pressures in terms of energy costs, so they’re prioritising activities that make them more money and school bookings are being squeezed. So it’s a perfect storm.”
The Black Country is home to Sandwell Aquatics Centre, the only new venue built specifically for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, which has been closed to the public ever since but is set to reopen as a community swimming pool in August.
At the launch of the pop-up pool programme at Shireland Hall Primary Academy, athletes expressed concern that without boosting access to pools, the next generation of medal-winning swimmers could be lost.
“I know for a fact I wouldn’t be where I am now if I hadn’t discovered my love of swimming at a young age,” said Richards, who won gold at the 2020 Olympics. “It is so sad to see leisure centres and pools having to close down, and incredible facilities like Sandwell not being open for so long. It’s tough to see.
“And right now schools just don’t have the money to be able to afford to get buses to take kids to the pool, which could be 20 miles away.”
Qualified lifeguards and swimming teachers will initially work with pupils in pools, placed in a marquee on school grounds, at eight schools with the aim of teaching them to self-rescue in water and swim at least 25 metres by the end of the four-month period.
In the Black Country, an area including Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall, an average of six in 10 year 6 pupils in previous years were able to swim 25 metres, dropping to fewer than five in 10 in 2022 after reduced swimming access during the lockdown periods.
Rising energy costs are also predicted to exacerbate the problem, with more than 100 UK pools predicted to close or reduce their service by summer 2023. England has lost almost 400 swimming pools since 2010, with council areas with the highest levels of health-related deprivation losing the most.
The Swim England research also showed stark inequalities in access to swimming, with figures showing 95% of black adults and 80% of black children in England do not swim, along with 93% of Asian adults and 78% of Asian children.
Speedo Swim United said the programme would also work with local communities to address barriers to swimming locally, and ensure families could continue swimming beyond the project.
Great Britain and Jamaica swimmer Michael Gunning said it was imperative to build on the success of the Commonwealth Games, particularly among children in the local area who saw the event on their doorstep.
“In the sessions today, we saw the fear in some of their eyes and for some of them, their parents probably have that fear too,” he said. “So I think it’s important that we can bring the pool to them, so they can have that exposure and leave at the end wanting to swim again.”
