The Water Safety (Curriculum) Bill requires the Secretary of State to include water safety and training in prevention of drowning as a compulsory part of the curriculum for all schools in England. 

The Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK) have been lobbying for many years to ensure that all children have access to water safety education no matter their background. Through our work with the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Water Safety, we have worked with numerous MPs to push forwards with establishing more accessible water safety education across the UK to prevent future drownings.

RLSS UK's Patron, and member of the APPG, Lord Storey put through a Bill in June 2022 to move towards including water safety education on the curriculum for all schools in England.

The Bill has had its second reading in the House of Lords in May 2023 and we now await a date for the Committee Stage.

View the second reading

Why is the Bill important? 

For a long time the Government have argued that swimming and water safety are included on the PE curriculum in England, however, there are clear inadequacies and inequalities in their policy position on water safety.

        
      

Pre-COVID, almost 1 in 4 children (24% of) were not hitting the statutory ‘can self-rescue’ standard [i]. Worryingly there is huge disparity between high and low affluence households, as well as between different ethnic backgrounds, with those from the lowest affluence and those from ethnic minorities most likely to fail to reach the statutory standards.

This uneven playing field is well-known and RLSS UK has been asking questions of Government since 2017 about reviewing its approach to ensure equal access. The Water Safety (Curriculum) Bill is a hugely positive step to securing equal access to water safety education for all children. 

RLSS UK Charity Director, Lee Heard, wrote a blog in 2022 about why so many children are lacking essential water safety knowledge. Read the blog.

How you can support the Bill: 

We will be sharing the above graphics on social media and would love to have your support. Please either share to your friends, families and networks from the RLSS UK social accounts or you can download the graphics below to share direct from your own account. 

Download graphics

Remaining Stages of the Bill:

House of Lords:

• Committee Stage
• Report Stage
• Third Reading

House of Commons:

• First Reading
• Second Reading
• Committee Stage
• Third Reading

Final Stages:

• Consideration of Amendments
• Royal Assent

Once all of the above stages are completed, the Water Safety (Curriculum) Bill becomes an Act of Parliament.

View latest updates from Parliament 

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[i] Sports England Active Lives Survey (2017-18)