Black Country Water Safety Programme Builds Impact and Momentum

It’s one year since the launch of the inaugural Black Country Water Safety Programme – and there’s plenty of progress to report.

The programme, launched in September 2024, was initiated in response to growing concern about children’s access to swimming and water safety education across the Black Country, particularly in areas of deprivation.

Aimed at helping reduce child drowning fatalities and ensuring children are equipped with vital lifesaving knowledge, the programme – funded by WMCA Inclusive Communities Fund - has shown signs of impact across the Black Country alongside related water safety work.

Active Black Country’s delivery partners – Swim England, the Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS), Canal & River Trust, the four Black Country local authorities and local leisure operators – helped the programme to reach more than 4,000 children at around 80 schools.

Targeted, curriculum-aligned water safety education – including pool-based sessions, classroom learning, canal-side demonstrations and a resources hub for schools – has raised awareness and knowledge of water safety.

The 2023-24 Black Country Primary School Swimming Survey reveals a 9.71% increase in Year 6 pupils able to demonstrate safe self-rescue, with the programme alongside the pop-up pool initiative for schools contributing factors to the improvement from 52% to 61.71% for the period.

“In the Black Country, we have been working hard to raise the importance of water safety education over the last two years," said Lesley Hill, Director of Partnerships at Active Black Country.

“These latest figures show that Active Black Country and our partners are making a positive impact and underlines the need to progress work to ensure schools, pupils and communities continue to gain the benefits of water safety knowledge that allows people to be safe in and around water.”

Key impacts of Black Country Water Safety Programme

• 72% of children who attended water safety sessions could perform a safe self-rescue with or without floatation equipment after 5 x 30-minute lessons.
• 109 teachers across 80 schools, plus 41 partners, registered on the water safety resources hub with a potential reach of 22,000 pupils.
• 255 pupils across the Black Country attended water safety sessions at their local swimming pool.

Following the learnings from the 2024 programme, the water safety resource hub has been refreshed. To date, 15 schools and seven partners have registered on the hub with a potential reach of 3,700 pupils.

New sections of resources aimed at parents/ carers and community groups have been added alongside those for Black Country primary schools. Links to age-appropriate and SEND resources from the RLSS, Canal & River Trust and Swim England also feature.

Several water safety education events through 2025 have built on the Black Country Water Safey Programme’s initial success, including a water safety session at Sandwell Aquatic Centre targeting families from the Sandwell Choices programme. Two ‘train the trainer’ workshops were held in Sandwell and Dudley to give youth workers and community groups the skills and knowledge to deliver water safety workshops.

Supporting the work was a campaign run by Active Black Country in July and August bearing the slogan ‘Active Days – Safe Waterways’. Linked to promotion of canalside activities to motivate people to get active around the canal network, the water safety messaging was integrated into the larger ‘Move Together’ campaign designed to inspire every Black Country resident to embrace movement as part of their daily lives.

In July, Active Black Country joined Swim England and the Royal Life Saving Society at the inaugural Oxfordshire Swimming and Water Safety Summit hosted by Active Oxfordshire, which brought together schools, leisure providers, community partners and local authorities. Active Black Country shared learnings from the Black Country Water Safety Programme – and discussions took place about the potential of implementing a similar initiative across Oxfordshire.