PRESS RELEASE: Monday 26th November 2007

The youth research group Generation Youth Issues, which campaigns against the over regulation of young people’s lives, is today launching a campaign to get rid of the irrational safe swimming policies being adopted by council swimming pools across Scotland.

Regulations that often vary from pool to pool and council to council are increasingly taking a hyper-cautious ‘cotton wool’ approach to adults taking their children swimming and are refusing entry to parents who turn up with their children because of ‘health and safety’.

James, a parent of two, for example, was turned away from Bellahouston Swimming Pool because his children were 2 and 4 years old – and the pool’s policy demands a one adult to one child relationship for under 4 year olds.

Lizzie who helps run a lone parents group in North Lanarkshire similarly found to her disbelief and anger that when she and 7 other parents turned up at their local swimming pool with 9 children (that’s a ratio of 8 adults to 9 children), they too were turned away.

In effect this means that single parents who have more than one young child, busy parents like James who try and take their children swimming by themselves, or indeed parents of more than two children under the age of 8 can forget about going swimming in many of the pools in Scotland.

This both discriminates against single parents and restricts many other parents and children from using council services. It also treats parents with contempt – as individuals who should have no say over the safety of their children – indeed as people who are putting their children at risk.

As James argues

"If I think it’s OK to take my kids swimming that is surely my choice. I would never put my children at risk. I was so annoyed when this happened I demanded to know of the manager of the pool if he loves my children more than I do! Because the suggestion is that I am putting my children in danger and in a sense my kids need to be protected from my negligence! It’s patronising and stupid."

These safety first policies have been developed by the Institute of Sport and Leisure Management (ISRM) and incorporated into a growing number of council leisure services. Interestingly, in comparison, private gyms with swimming pools appear to have no such policies and rely on the common sense of their members and staff.

Safety must clearly be a concern for those running these services but as chair of Generation Youth Issues Stuart Waiton said, "this is part of a child safety obsession and is detrimental to adults and children". He explained that,

"The new procedures seem to bear no relationship to the real dangers faced or with any increase in the problem of young children drowning in swimming pools. Child safety simply appears to swamp all other considerations and turn those providing these services into risk managers and insurance clerks rather than providers of public services. We must stop treating every child in everything they do as ‘at risk’."

Only a few weeks ago Tom Mullarkey the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) argued that overzealous bureaucrats were undermining legitimate health and safety concerns due to a loss of common sense. His idea that Britain should be made as "safe as necessary, not as safe as possible" should be heeded by Scottish councils. These swimming policies are not based on a real problem. It is incredibly rare for children to come to harm in swimming pools – perhaps especially children under 4 years of age who are being supervised by their parents. This is all about a health and safety culture that treats every parent as a potential litigant and every child as a safety problem.

The question of child safety in swimming pools and of how many children an adult takes swimming should be something that is negotiated by experienced professionals and parents themselves. Only by preventing the over bureaucratised approach to child safety can we encourage a more sensible and public spirited approach and get more children swimming.

Drowing in Risk Aversion
Children are being turned away from swimming pools in Scotland because bureaucrats think they know better than parents how to keep kids safe, Stuart Waiton explains the situation on spiked.

Media: stuart.waiton@generationyouthissues.org.uk

Send your comments to: swimming@generationyouthissues.org.uk