The value of swimming

Andy Salmon, CEO, Swim England, gives an overview of challenges faced by the leisure sector, as well as the multitude of health and wellbeing benefits offered.

As a national governing body, we are enormously proud of the fact that swimming is one of the most widely participated sports in the country and that it has far reaching societal benefits.
Swimming and water safety is so much more than just a physical activity though. It is a life skill that could save not only your own life but the life of someone nearby who may find themselves in difficulty in water.

That’s why we want every child to leave primary school in England being able to swim and being safe and confident around water. That’s a non-negotiable from our perspective and we will continue to work tirelessly to make that a reality.

Swimming also stimulates cognitive development in children, boosting brain function, concentration and, as a result, boosting learning potential which will stand them not only in good stead for school but later life when they set out on their chosen career path.

Swimming is a skill that has such a positive impact on a person’s health and wellbeing – research conclusively shows that being in water is good for people, regardless of their age or background. The figures show that swimming is especially popular with older people and those living with one or more long term health condition.

Last year we published our Value of Swimming report, and our research showed that aquatic activity generates £2.4billion of social value in England every year, prevents more than 78,500 cases of ill health and saves the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds each year.

Those are startling statistics and make a compelling case for our aquatic sports and activities, but it’s a sad reality that the swimming sector is under threat like never before and people who want to be active in the water are being denied the opportunity.

Spiralling energy and staffing costs – including recent changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions (which swimming pool operators have estimated will cost them around £90 million) and financial pressures on local authorities are putting a squeeze on blue spaces across the country … and then there’s the issue of ageing pools.

Since 2010 we have already seen a loss of around 480 publicly available swimming pools and almost 1,200 pools currently operational in England are more than 40 years of age and coming towards the end of their natural ‘shelf life’.

Pools are expensive things to build – there’s no getting away from that – but we need to take a place-based approach to ensure that we have the right mix of water space to support the needs of local communities. 

Local authorities, both as place leaders and large investors in public leisure, clearly have a crucial role to play.

Financial and environmental sustainability need to be at the core of any future network of pools and at Swim England we have the expertise to be able to support local authorities and operators. We can help from the outset with facility planning advice right through to ongoing operational backing.

We have led the way in researching green technologies that can make the country’s pool stock more sustainable in every sense.
Pools and leisure centres are already precious community hubs where people meet to take part in an activity that will benefit their health and wellbeing but by reimagining their purpose, strengthening the links between the health and leisure systems and structures – including through the co-location of services, it is clear they can do so much more and benefit even more people. 
As our Value of Swimming reports have shown, swimming is a powerful preventive healthcare tool. Regular swimming can help prevent and manage a wide range of health conditions, including obesity, cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders, reducing pressures on our already stretched health and social care system. 

We envisage a future where swimming is universally recognised for its health benefits and where every citizen of England has the opportunity to swim regularly at a leisure centre or facility close to where they live.

Swimming can do even more to help people to lead happier, healthier lives but to enable that requires the investment to deliver a sustainable network of pools for the future.