Primary Schools: Swimming Lessons

Question

15:11:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of children in primary schools who do not have regular swimming lessons in school time.

My Lords, swimming and water safety is a compulsory element of the primary PE national curriculum. We do not collect data from every primary school about how many lessons pupils get, but sample data from Sport England shows that in 2023-24, 95.2% of state primary schools surveyed reported providing swimming lessons. The department also supports schools to provide swimming and water safety lessons through teacher training and resources, and the PE and sport premium for top-up lessons.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. I understand and know her personal support for school sport and swimming; in fact, we worked together many years ago on this issue. I know provision in some schools are very good, but does she agree that, because children have to be able to swim 25 metres, there is a tendency, once they tick that box, for swimming to finish for many of our youngsters, and they do not have the family support to get it outside school? Will she look again at some of the statistics that come from some of the organisations? It is sometimes in their interests to say that things are going very well. We need to look at this, so that youngsters get that life chance to swim not just safely but for fun, enjoyment and competition.

I thank the noble Baroness for her question. I was reminiscing about a previous life in which we worked together as Ministers to considerably increase the sporting opportunities for children in our schools and for people more widely. She is absolutely right to identify that, although it is obviously important that children learn, as the national curriculum suggests, to swim 25 metres by the time they finish primary school, there is much more to swimming as an opportunity for life than simply meeting that standard, important though it is. We need to think about how schools can provide more opportunities for broader sporting activity, including swimming, and, of course, how our community facilities, which have been reduced in recent years, can support the broadest possible engagement, including from those children whose parents are perhaps less able to take them for swimming lessons and activities than is the case at the moment.

My Lords, I declare an interest as patron of the Royal Life Saving Society. The Minister will know that, in the 10 to 16 age group, one in three young people cannot swim; that is the group with the highest occurrence of drowning. More shockingly, within the black community, 95% of adults and 80% of children cannot swim; the figures are roughly the same in the Asian community. These are shocking figures. Does the Minister agree that it is time we had an action plan so we can ensure that every child who leaves school can swim?

The noble Lord makes a very important point about the discrepancies in achievement in children’s swimming. He is absolutely right that if someone comes from a well-off background they are more than 80% likely to have fulfilled the requirement, whereas that goes down to a third for someone from a poorer background. As he also rightly says, there is a real difference depending on someone’s ethnic background. That is completely unsatisfactory. Although work is ongoing through the Inclusion 2024 project to try to ensure that more children, including those with special educational needs and disabilities, get access to swimming, the noble Lord is right that there is more we all need to do together, and across government, to ensure that children meet the required standard by the time they leave primary school. Furthermore, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hoey, identified in her previous question, we need to ensure that they are also able to get the enjoyment and opportunities that come from being able to swim confidently.

My Lords, I declare an interest as a teacher. Swim England reports that, since 2011, almost 500 publicly accessible pools have closed, and that child drowning deaths have doubled in the last four years. Would the Minister agree that it is difficult to swim if you do not have a pool?

I strongly agree with the noble Lord. As he says, there are 500 fewer public-access swimming pools operational in England now than there were in 2010. Alongside that, there has been a 7% increase in the pay-per-swim cost in the last year. Whether in schools, where we need to make sure that teachers are supported with the skills to develop children’s basic swimming skills, or in the provision across our communities more widely, there is more we need to do to support swimming.

My Lords, the Minister has spoken about the correlation between ethnicity and poverty. We often talk about the cost of a school uniform, but there is no need for swimwear or anything of that nature to be branded. Are His Majesty’s Government looking at whether the cost of additional items such as swimwear is part of the barrier to kids, who grow so quickly, accessing swimming lessons, as well as the lack of facilities?

The noble Baroness identifies probably one of the many barriers that prevent parents and their children being able to swim if they are living in poverty. I am not aware of whether expecting branded swimming items is a barrier to children being able to swim, but if it is that is clearly wrong. I suspect that would be covered by the provisions in the Bill that we will receive in the near future to ensure that school uniform is not a barrier to children being able to learn, in this case, a very important skill.

My Lords, as we have heard, under the last Tory Government a lot of swimming baths were closed. The failure of that Government is a fact that they do not like to be reminded of. Is it not the case that deprived areas had their pools closed? Should we not look again at whether we should provide new swimming pools in the most deprived parts of Britain?

My noble friend is right. I have already identified the decrease in the number of public pools, as others have. He also makes an important point about ensuring that there is access to public leisure facilities on a fair basis. The responsibility for that lies at the local authority level. We are continuing to encourage local authorities to invest in leisure facilities, notwithstanding the considerable pressures on their funding that they have faced over recent years.

My Lords, unfortunately, sport in schools has been described as in “crisis”, with a “Covid cohort” of children not returning to physical activity. The neglect of sport is leading to catastrophic effects on childhood obesity and mental health, and evidence suggests that many children are now addicted to their phones. Can the Minister please deliver on what her Prime Minister said, which was that children are being “locked out of emulating their heroes” because of a lack of PE provision? Will she commit to focusing on there being no mobile phones in schools and more physical education in the curriculum?

I am trying not to be grumpy in answering this Question today, as I was a bit grumpy yesterday. However, the noble Earl has a bit of a cheek talking about the crisis in PE provision in our schools. This Government have acted quickly, but have been in government for only six months. The 6.7 percentage point decrease in those able to swim 25 metres unaided, compared with 2017-18, cannot be laid at the feet of this Government. Having said that, there is a range of ways in which we want to reinvigorate sport, PE and other opportunities for children in our schools, whether by increasing the number or teachers, by increasing the funding that we have provided or by ensuring that the capital funding is there for provision. We take seriously the responsibility to ensure that every child has access to the sporting activities that are so important for both their health and their future opportunity.

My Lords, in response to an earlier question, the Minister said that local government could fund additional swimming pools where they have been closed. I am asking her to put her realism hat on to say where that funding will come from. Would she be prepared to go to her department to see whether grants are available for local government to fund new swimming pools, particularly in areas such as Dewsbury in my council, where there is no public swimming pool?

To be completely clear, I said that it is a responsibility of local authorities to provide swimming pools. I also conceded that, over recent years, those local authorities have faced considerable financial challenges. I recognise that that is the cause of the issue my noble friend raised. I am not in a position, at this point, from this Dispatch Box, to promise largesse to local authorities. I am sure that the Government are aware of the many challenges local councils face, and we will work, when we can, to help alleviate them.