Memorandum submitted by the Amateur Swimming
Association
INTRODUCTION
1. This paper is a submission by the Amateur
Swimming Association (ASA) to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee
Inquiry into Community Sport.
2. The ASA is the governing body for swimming
and its associated disciplines in England and is the largest of
the constituent members of the Amateur Swimming Federation of
Great Britain. However, it has a much wider remit, which is indicated
by its mission statement, which includes the following objectives:
"Swimming is a sport for life.
To ensure everyone has an opportunity to learn
to swim.
To ensure everyone can achieve his or her personal
goals.
To ensure everyone has the opportunity to enjoy
swimming as a part of a healthy lifestyle".
3. Swimming continues to be the largest
participation sport in the UK, with 11.9 million people participating
on a regular basis and is widely acknowledged as being a healthy
activity, providing good cardio vascular and muscular exercise,
with minimal risk of injury. It is a sport enjoyed by both young
and old and one that can be enjoyed by people of all shapes and
sizes. Importantly it is also an activity from which people suffering
from a disability can gain an immense amount of satisfaction and
pleasure and also help with the recovery of people who have suffered
a major illness. In short it is an activity, which is uniquely
beneficial across the whole of society.
4. In its evidence to the Culture, Media
and Sport Committee Inquiry into the Sport of Swimming in December
2001 the ASA drew the attention of the Committee to a number of
issues which restricted the opportunities for children and adults
to take up swimming and to continue swimming throughout their
lifetime. These were picked up by the Committee in the report
"Testing the Waters: The Sport of Swimming" and we feel
it is appropriate to refer to the progress which has been made
as a part of this submission.
LEARNING TO
SWIM—SCHOOLS
5. Initially many children learn to swim
through schools and evidence was provided to the Committee indicating
that one in five children failed to meet the requirements of the
National Curriculum and were unable to swim 25 miles by the end
of Key Stage 2. Further research indicates that this may in fact
be an understated figure and more children are not given an opportunity
to achieve the National Curriculum standard than was originally
thought. This further research confirms however that the ones
that don't achieve the standard or who don't get the opportunity
to achieve the standard are largely from the poorest in society.
6. As a solution to the problem two pilot
schemes have been conducted by the Department for Education and
Skills (DfES), together with the ASA and these have demonstrated
that for children who have not achieved the standard, there can
be a 67% success rate if they are provided with an intensive course
of instruction (TOP-Up) at some point in the term—in this
case, after their SATs exam. The added benefits of this initiative
were astonishing in that the children gained in general confidence
and had a strong feeling of wellbeing. The anecdotal evidence
from teachers from the scheme was impressive as for some children
it was the first time they had achieved much in sport through
school.
7. Further co-operation between the DfES
and the ASA has resulted in the launch of a school's "Swimming
Charter" providing guidance on swimming teaching and water
safety and examples of good practice for school swimming programmes.
8. Additionally substantial funding is being
made available by the DfES for further development of the TOP-Up
programme to ensure that learn to swim, delivered by schools is
of a consistently high quality. The ASA are currently working
with DfES on a consultation into the best method of delivering
this on a national basis.
9. Whilst all the foregoing are positive
moves, the ASA still hears of schools where, because of funding
pressures relating to the cost of transport and pool hire or because
of pressures on the time table or the lack of suitably trained
swimming teachers, swimming still does not receive the attention
it warrants. The key to resolving once and for all the issue of
effective school swimming is for OFSTED to measure the delivery
of school swimming and the achievement of children against the
agreed standard linked to significant investment in quality teacher
training through the ASA. All the evidence suggests a good teacher
will deliver good results in the pool.
10. The teaching of swimming and safety
in the water are not only the gateway to swimming and its disciplines
but are also necessary to take part safely in a whole host of
other water-based activities. The ASA believes that learning to
swim at an early age is one of the pre requisites for a lifelong
active and healthy lifestyle and whilst applauding what is being
done to improve the situation by the DfES, considers that the
Government should be more specific in focusing on the delivery
of swimming in schools including the provision of specific targeted
funding.
11. Learning to swim however should not
be seen in isolation to the achievement of the child generally
in school. Knowledge of water safety an important part of the
National Curriculum provides important understanding for the child
in risk assessment. Swimming also opens up the door to a wider
enjoyment of sport and activity and can be linked to nutrition
and other key learning skills.
LEARNING TO
SWIM—OTHER
SOURCES OF
TUITION
12. Not all swimming tuition takes place
in schools and many children and adults receive swimming tuition
from other sources. For some time the ASA has had a concern about
the standard of teaching and a lack of consistency in the approach
to the teaching of swimming. As a result the ASA has developed
a standard for teaching programmes, "Aquamark", which
can be applied universally to schools, local authority pools,
private pool providers, health clubs, private swim schools and
swimming clubs. The standard has been developed following consultation
with the various types of organisations, which provide teaching,
was piloted in eleven centres before its launch and has the support
of the leisure industry. The standard should help to ensure a
consistency in the approach to and quality of lessons, giving
the consumer confidence and making learning to swim an enjoyable
experience. Perhaps the time has now come where tuition in all
public and private sport facilities should be required to meet
national performance criteria set by the ASA as the governing
body for the sport.
LIFELONG PARTICIPATION
13. Once the skill of swimming has been
learned it is there for the rest of a person's life. Whilst it
may become "rusty" if the skill is not exercised, recovery
is easy and the support given by the water allows an aging person
with mobility problems to undertake cardio vascular exercise,
which would normally be impossible.
14. Whilst this is true it is also correct
to say that for some swimming is boring and we believe that if
we are to encourage people to swim throughout their lifetime there
is a need to look carefully at the promotion of swimming and its
image. We need to improve our facilities with significant investment
to make them inviting and more customer friendly and we need to
adapt our programmes in pools to provide "added value"
to the customers of today. The ASA feels to achieve this requires:
— Investment in facilities.
— Investment in training of staff.
FACILITIES
15. The Select Committee was made aware
of the parlous state of many of the public swimming facilities
and school pools and it would be true to say that the situation
has not improved. Indeed we hear more reports concerning closures
or possible closures than we do of new or replacement pools being
built or refurbishments taking place.
16. Additionally the Committee also received
information on the role played by the Sport England Lottery Fund
in providing capital for swimming pool projects and whilst this
has continued at a somewhat lower level with investment in a number
of projects, the future for funding from this source now looks
exceedingly bleak.
17. The Government has put in place a number
of national programmes designed to invest in the building of new
facilities and upgrading existing ones but to date the effect
on swimming facilities appears to be fairly minimal when viewed
against the need, over the next few years, of an estimated expenditure
of over £2 billion just to maintain the status quo. Indeed,
in terms of swimming, the government target of no one living more
than 20 minutes away from a sports facility by 2008 will be difficult
to meet unless there is a specific investment programme aimed
at improving the swimming pool stock.
18. We support the Government contention
that if children and young people can be given the habit of exercising
from an early age and easy ways provided of continuing to exercise
out of school, they are more likely to stay active into adult
hood. We were therefore enthused by the "Building Schools
for the Future" (BSF) programme only to find that whilst
other school sports facilities which could also be used by the
community were included, swimming pools were not. Whilst anecdotal,
we have heard of community schools built in the 70's with a swimming
pool, which are to be replaced under the BSF programme, where
the new school will not include a swimming pool unless this can
be funded from another source. This is a missed opportunity, particularly
in areas where there is a poor provision of swimming facilities
and runs contrary to Sport England policy on community use of
schools.
19. If we are to encourage the increasing
numbers of participants in swimming envisaged by the Government,
facility provision will need to be an important part of any strategy.
20. We see pools of the future being designed
to be accessible and flexible with the aim of maximising participation
and where appropriate being a part of a "whole" community
facility being linked into schools where these are well sited
for community access or linking into the development of libraries,
health centres, community halls and multi sports facilities etc.
The whole, however, is contingent upon appropriate funding mechanisms
being available to build and manage these facilities for the community
they serve.
INVESTMENT IN
TRAINING—PROFESSIONALS
21. The ASA is developing alongside the
UK Coaching Certificate a new training programme for "Healthy
Living Coaches" who can bring to the pool some of the culture
of the fitness room where the customer is valued and supported
through their experience.
22. Swimming remains the one activity that
can make perhaps the biggest single impact on obesity and health.
The need for Strategic investment is now. Funding for the ASA
from Sport England is the same today as it was yesterday despite
all the work in developing a Whole Sport Plan. The ASA believes
working with its traditional partners and new partners in the
commercial sector it can drive participation up in swimming by
1% each year. This is an ambitious target and one that cries out
for investment from Government to work with the ASA in putting
its activity strategy into place. The ASA has called for:
— Investment into training with the
ASA able to access directly Learning and Skills Council funding
for a national training programme for people in the aquatic business.
— A network of 45 Swimming Activity
co-ordinators to be appointed linked to County Sport Partnerships
to stimulate activity locally.
INVESTMENT IN
TRAINING—VOLUNTEERS
23. Like all sports, participation at grass
roots level relies very heavily upon volunteers. Swimming is no
exception and there are some 50,000 volunteers giving almost 3
million hours of their time per year. Without this level of unpaid
service, which can involve teaching, coaching, lifeguarding, acting
as an official for competition, administration and even just taking
children by car to events the sport would struggle to survive.
24. Also the work of the volunteer get more
difficult as the years progress with new legislation, health and
safety matters and in this increasingly litigious society the
threat of civil and even criminal action. As a result training
is of the utmost importance and the ASA have found it necessary
to appoint a Volunteer Co-ordinator with the responsibility of
recruiting and supporting volunteers, ensuring that they follow
a programme of training and development.
25. Funding is provided through the "Step
into Sport" programme but like many other funding programmes
there is no certainty of the level of funding from year to year
or even its continuance. The role of the volunteer is critical
to grass roots sport as is the finance to provide the necessary
training.
ACCESSIBILITY AND
AFFORDABILITY
26. Swimming has a vital role to play in
the promotion of healthy living, the prevention of illness, the
treatment of illness and disability and social development and
interaction amongst people of all ages. However the problems for
many people who would wish to swim are those of accessibility
and affordability, which we consider, are linked.
27. We welcome therefore the initiatives
to provide free swimming for children which, if correctly managed,
can help develop the habit of exercise. To help develop this habit
of exercise, however, we believe that there should be an element
of structure and progression through appropriate pathways in these
schemes in order to maintain interest. Whilst obviously we would
wish to see an increase in the numbers taking up competitive swimming
as an activity, we also see the progression element as being an
opportunity to introduce children to a wide range of water based
activities in the safe environment of the swimming pool.
28. We also welcome the initiatives, which
are under consideration, regarding the extension of free swimming
to older people for whom swimming is ideally suited, putting very
little strain on the body.
29. We see these initiatives as positive
moves but we still have concerns relating to our swimming clubs.
Whilst the inquiry is about grass roots sport we believe this
includes all our clubs, apart from those at Elite Level, the large
majority of whose membership is under 16 years of age.
30. Clubs have difficulty in obtaining access
to pools in relation to suitable times of the day and also the
number of hours available for hire. Many clubs are working towards
a national club accreditation standard that is compatible with
Sport England's Club mark scheme, however to reach standards set,
clubs find it difficult to access appropriate pool time.
31. The solution lies in sympathetic management
but in many instances commercial pressures prevail. Or there is
a sad lack of understanding as to how clubs offer a community
service.
32. Commercial considerations also prevail
over social gain in regard to affordability with the hire of a
standard 25 metre by 6 lane pool for an hour varying with different
local authorities from a low of around £25 where swimming
is seen as a community service to over £100 where "bottom
line" finance prevails. Whilst it would be wrong to generalise
there is some evidence that higher charges prevail where public
pools are managed by commercial undertakings.
33. We understand that consideration is
being given to making free swimming for children more widely available
and we would suggest that this consideration should be coupled
with the role of clubs and how those clubs with a large number
of children in their membership could also benefit from some system
of concessions.
PROMOTION
34. Raising awareness is crucial to changing
behaviour—people need to understand that sport is good for
them and have an appreciation of how they can get involved. The
three countries that have demonstrated consistent increases in
participation rates in physical activity over significant periods
of time (Canada, New Zealand and Finland) have all benefited from
the imaginative, consistent, sustained and well-funded deployment
of marketing campaigns to stimulate a culture of physical activity.
35. The potential of concerted awareness
and information campaigns to encourage more positive attitudes
to health issues has been demonstrated by the anti-smoking campaign.
This was supported by clear and unambiguous messages about the
dangers of smoking. We believe that in addition to government
campaigns regarding exercise there should be targeted campaigns
on specific activities such as swimming.
36. However, the raising of awareness should
be accompanied by access to appropriate and affordable opportunities
in well designed, safe environments, supported by a high quality
workforce.
SUMMARY
37. The ASA believes that sport has an immense
role to play in improving people's lives—providing fun,
exercise, better health and a way out for those caught up in crime
and drugs. Learning to swim is a gateway to many sporting activities
and a pre-requisite for life long participation.
38. We welcome the support given by the
government to swimming, without which many of the improvements
now taking place would not have been possible. Nevertheless we
have concerns which are set out in this paper and may be summarised
as follows:
— Funding pressures on school swimming.
— The need for public and private facilities
for swimming tuition to meet national performance criteria.
— The need for adequate investment
in facilities.
— The need for investment in staff
and volunteer training with direct access to Learning & Skills
Council funding nationally where appropriate.
— The need to ensure appropriate pathways
for health related swimming and personal development from free
swimming initiatives.
— The need to ensure appropriate access
at reasonable costs for club swimming.
— The Whole Sport Plan has assisted
with flexibility but the level of funding is sometimes only confirmed
for a year at a time. A rolling plan with forecasts of grant is
needed.
4 April 2005
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