Safe Supervision During School Swimming

Several schools have recently approached us for clarity over the position of whether a teacher must accompany school groups off-site as part of the arrangements for swimming tuition. It is currently the position that a teacher must accompany the pupils to off-site swimming activities.

This is something that we are reviewing in light of Workforce Remodelling and in the wider context of best practice. We are currently awaiting further advice and guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) who are prosecuting a case involving a school based swimming programme and a possible breech of the duty of care. This case from Blackpool could set a legal precedent that would impact on supervision and will clarify who can assume the duty of care off-site during curricular swimming tuition.

While we have considerable sympathy with the requests for the guidance to be amended, it would be inappropriate at present to change our policy and guidance to schools regarding the safe supervision of pupils on swimming lessons. Local guidance takes precedent over national guidance and we will look at the implications of any ruling coming from the cases in Blackpool and a further one in Buckinghamshire. Therefore schools should bear this in mind when planning for PPA time. It is not envisaged that any significant change will occur prior to September 2006.

Some schools shuttle groups to swimming pools over a short distance, we believe non-teaching staff could supervise this activity if there is a member of their teaching staff already at the pool (from the previous group).

Many schools have asked if a consent form is required for swimming lessons. Swimming is part of the national curriculum so consent is not needed, but parents must pass on relevant medical information to the swimming instructor/school and parents should know when their child is off site. To this end we have a new swimming form available on: http://schools.norfolk.gov.uk/myportal/index.cfm?s=1&m=1376&p=1046,index&zs=n.

If you have any queries about this please contact Tom Hanrahan (School Visits Adviser) on 01603 433276.