The Royal Life Saving Society UK’s (RLSS UK) 2022 Drowning Prevention Week was a huge success thanks to all of our supporters and members.

Lee Heard, Charity Director at RLSS UK said “The importance of the campaign was shown in July as we saw a devastating month with many lives lost to drowning. Looking ahead, we would like to ask all of our members and supporters to keep spreading the vital water safety messages and take opportunities to educate and reflect on what more we can do. Without Drowning Prevention Week it is simply unimaginable to think what the devastation might have been if you had not joined us in the incredible effort to educate people around water safety.

“It is important that Drowning Prevention Week is not the start or the end of the efforts to enhance young people’s knowledge, help increase their skills and abilities to be safe around water but also give them the confidence to enjoy water. It is a year round effort and one that must be further embedded and we are looking forward to sharing soon our efforts to enhance curriculum water safety, something which will need everyone’s support to make sustainable change.”

The aim of Drowning Prevention Week is simple: to educate as many people as possible about water safety to prevent future drownings. The week is one of the largest summer water safety campaigns across the UK and Ireland and for 2022 the campaign reached even more people than in previous years.

As part of the campaign, RLSS UK made a number of water safety education materials free to download on our website and over 341,000 children in schools (up 26% on 2021) and over 909,000 children in leisure centres (more than double the number in 2021) were taught water safety using our materials.

The website also hosted numerous assets for our supporters to download and share during the week and the website saw over 176,000 visits during the week, which is up 82% on a typical week.

Our social media channels saw a huge increase for engagement, averaging 59% more reactions and 69% more shares per post when compared to 2021. We worked with social media influencers to help spread key messages and reach new audiences which resulted in over 128,000 story views and over 2,500 post engagements.

Twitter saw numerous conversations taking place after we shared various RLSS UK research to spark debate around drowning prevention and get people thinking about the reasons people drown and what more can be done.

For 2022, we created a brand new animation aimed at young children and their families to get them engaged with water safety. The animation had two times more reactions and shares on social media compared to 2021’s top video post and a huge 2.79 million viewing opportunities on YouTube. In a recent survey, 4 in 5 parents agreed the animation made them think again about water safety and the survey showed it resonated strongly with parents.

We worked with the media to issue press releases where we saw over 250 press articles and broadcasts in both local and national press, three times the amount of 2021. We also hosted an event at Westminster which saw over 50 MPs attend, sign our Drowning Prevention Week pledge and many engaged through their own channels after the event.

The survey also showed that awareness amongst parents of Drowning Prevention Week increased significantly from 17% in 2021 to 31% in 2022.

It is fantastic to see these headline results and how our annual campaign continues to make a difference across the UK and Ireland.

If you would like to support our efforts to prevent drowning and give everyone the opportunity to enjoy water safely you can become a Lifesaver member. Your membership helps us support communities with our essential work and in turn, saves lives.

Save the Date

Thank you once again and to help you to plan your support for The Royal Life Saving Society UK’s next installment of Drowning Prevention Week we are delighted to share the 2023 date with you – 17 – 24 June 2023.

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