The swimming pool is a high-risk environment in any leisure club. One way David Lloyd Clubs ensures high pool safety standards is to train poolside, office, and gym team members to provide pool emergency response assistance. 

David Lloyd Clubs constantly reviews its policies to ensure it continues offering the highest standards in swimming pool safety. It uses the National Pool Lifeguard Qualification (NPLQ) to train its dedicated pool lifeguards; however, to ensure they can achieve its 'less than 60-seconds' emergency rescue standard, David Lloyd Clubs trains its additional staff in RLSS UK's Emergency Response Pool Award. Since the award's launch in 2022, they have trained over 2,000 team members.

Therefore, when RLSS UK embarked on a journey to update the award, they invited Iain Denny (David Lloyd Club's Health & Safety Training Manager for Pool Safety) to participate and provide his thorough experience using the award and industry knowledge. Part of Iain's feedback related to changing the name to reflect more accurately what the award provided to the industry. Hence, in May 2024, the newly updated Swimming Pool Emergency Rescue Award was launched.

Iain Denny spoke of the collaboration: "The RLSS UK team are great to work with and always willing to listen. They support Operators and work to improve pool safety standards by creating qualifications that match the industry's needs and desires. The Swimming Pool Emergency Rescue Award is now the perfect emergency pool first aid and rescue award."

Nick Clayton, RLSS UK's Head of Qualification Development, added, "Iain Denny, David Lloyd Clubs, and the other expert panel members use the qualification day-to-day, and their feedback is so important. This project has helped us develop a more robust award to support the leisure industry in raising pool safety standards."

Find out more about the Swimming Pool Emergency Rescue Award here.