HEALTH AND SAFETY INFORMATION BULLETIN

No.7, November 2012

School Pool Safety Back in the News

Essex County Council has been fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,110 for safety failings after a child with severe learning and physical disabilities almost drowned in his school’s swimming pool. The 9-year-old boy, from Harlow, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was pulled from the water blue in colour and needed resuscitation after the incident during a school swimming session at HarlowFieldsSchool and College on 23 March last year.

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard on14 November 2012 that the boy and the rest of his class had been in the pool with inadequate supervision. After coming round at the pool side, he was taken to the Princess Alexander hospital where he had to stay for 26 hours. His mother, speaking in a statement taken as part of the HSE investigation, said that her son was now frightened of water and was generally not as happy as before.

“The Council has written to all schools on a number of occasions regarding the importance of adequate supervision of swimming pools and this and a number of other cases just show how dangerous swimming pools can be if the pools are not appropriately managed. I would ask all schools to review their normal operation and emergency plans to ensure the procedures are robust.

Dean Jackson, Assistant Director (Performance and Achievement)

As part of the review schools should pay particular attention to Pupil/teacher ratiosas they must not exceed 20:1 and for the vast majority of cases in primary school swimming should be less than this. The following ratios are based upon safety considerations rather than teaching requirements:

Non-swimmers and beginners 12:1 - Young children, normally primary school age,being introduced to swimming who are unable to swim 10 metres unaided on back and front.

Children under the age of seven 12:1 - Irrespective of their swimming ability, group size should be restricted.

Improving swimmers 20:1 - Swimmers of a similar ability to each other who can swim at least 10 metres competently and unaided on their back and on their front. It is recommended that the lesson be confined to an area in which the children are not out of their depth.

Mixed ability groups 20:1 - Pupils with a range of ability (from improving to competent) where the least able and least confident are working well within their depth. Swimmers’ techniques, stamina and deepwater experience should be considered.

Competent swimmers 20:1 - Those swimmers who can swim at least 25 metres competently and unaided on front and back, and can tread water for 2 minutes.”

ASASchool Swimming

The ASA acknowledge some of these ratio’s may be difficult to achieve so allow for a “qualified and skilled teacher can adopt a number of strategies to help with the management of the group. For example, another responsible person on the poolside, who is competent to recognise and respond to a pupil in difficulty, may provide the necessary supervision” and only when they are included in the schools Normal Operating Procedures. However these exceptions don’t apply when:

There is a wide variation in the swimming ability of the pupils, there are language or learning difficulties, the pool covers a large water area (more than 250sq metres), has deep water (deep water being 1.5metres and above) areas into which poor ability swimmers could stray and be out of their depth, difficulty in seeing beneath the water surface due to glare or reflection. Consequently Hartlepool Borough Council recommends that for the teaching of lessons to Primary School pupils that the Swimming Teacher must hold as a minimum qualification ASA Level 2 Teacher Certificate or equivalent and a NRATC qualification and the Swimming teacher must be accompanied by an ASA Level 1 Assistant Teacher or equivalent who must also hold a NPLQ.

Those Headteachers who operate their own swimming pools are requested to ensure a detailed risk assessment of their pool operations has been undertaken and that a set of Normal Operating Procedures and an Emergency Action Plan has been prepared which should include;

All other Headteachers should ensure they are checking these procedures and supervision arrangements to ensure they are satisfied they are meeting the appropriate standards. Any queries please contact the Health, Safety and Wellbeing Team on the usual number of 01429 523551.

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