14/03/2025
The March 2025 issue of the NWSF Newsletter is backed with updates on new reports, upcoming campaigns and exciting projects from our members.
Read the newsletter to find out more about:
- The recently published UK Drowning Prevention Strategy Review
- The results of the WAID Data Enhancement Project
- A new boating skills and safety campaign created by the MCA, RYA and the RNLI
- The return of the NFCC's Be Water Aware campaign
- The results of the Canal & River Trust's insight work on how to reach teenagers with water safety messages
- Swim England's review into the future of coaching
- A review into local authority approaches to water safety by Water Safety Scotland
- New guidance on creating water safety policies from Water Safety Scotland
- Surf Life Saving GB's work with Devon and Cornwall Police to enhance their approach to water safety
- Upcoming events from BISHTA and SPATA aimed at the wet leisure industry
- An update on the NWSF governance review
- Our new Water Safety Partnerships dashboard
- And the NWSF's new LinkedIn page
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10/03/2025
As we approach and plan for the next iteration of the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy (UK DPS), the National Water Safety Forum has been working to review the successes and progress made so far under the current strategy.
The resulting report, the UK DPS Review - A future without drowning, is now available to download from the NWSF website.
It details progress made on individual targets, selected case studies promoting examples of best practice and impact, approaches in the devolved nations, and a review of drowning data against the UK DPS baseline.
Read the UK DPS Review
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18/12/2024
Following the release of the World Health Organization’s landmark Global Status Report on Drowning Prevention on December 13, 2024, the National Water Safety Forum is urging the government to appoint a Minster responsible for drowning prevention, and to nominate a single government department to tackle this lifesaving work.
This report is the first of its kind to comprehensively measure drowning risks and response efforts worldwide. It highlights drowning as a silent epidemic, claiming over 300,000 lives globally in 2021, and almost 600 in the UK in 2022. The NWSF, via it’s Secretariat RoSPA, provided crucial UK data required for inclusion in the report, collating information from representatives across the UK, including devolved governments.
While the UK outperforms global averages, data from the UK’s Water Incident Database (WAID) shows that, despite initial positive progress and ongoing collaboration across relevant agencies, figures for accidental drowning deaths in the UK have remained largely static since 2019, with a slight increase in 2023 likely due to increased participation in water-based activities following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite the gravity of the issue, the UK government has yet to formally adopt all critical recommendations from the UN Assembly’s 2021 Resolution. Instead, initiatives remain reliant on voluntary networks like the NWSF, which has acted as a national focal point for this lifesaving work since 2004.
In sharp contrast, devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland have each assigned responsibility for drowning prevention to a named government Minister. In Scotland, there has been a 10 per cent decrease in accidental drowning fatalities from 2019 to 2023, as outlined in the Scotland Drowning Prevention Strategy Six Year Review.
The NWSF is asking the UK government to formally designate responsibility for this vital area of public health to a specific Minster and government department. Whilst the NWSF and the drowning prevention community has done well to keep drowning deaths relatively static, in order to see a real reduction in these preventable and tragic incidents – and to achieve a UK without drowning – both of these interventions are urgently required.
Professor Mike Tipton, NWSF Chair, said:
“Effective drowning prevention can only be achieved by a concerted, co-ordinated and optimised approach between relevant agencies, from science to search, rescue and treatment. The National Water Safety Forum aims to achieve this. The critical work of the NWSF would be greatly assisted by government funding, and ministerial responsibility for this area. This area needs to be prioritised, and needless drowning deaths and injuries prevented.”
The NWSF’s call echoes the recommendations of RoSPA’s recent report, Safer Lives, Stronger Nation, which urges the UK government to adopt a National Accident Prevention Strategy. With accidental deaths up 42 per cent over the last decade, action is overdue. Drowning is a devastating contributor to this crisis, robbing families of loved ones in entirely preventable tragedies.
CEO of RoSPA, Rebecca Hickman, said:
“To RoSPA, the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Drowning Prevention is a groundbreaking call to action, emphasising the urgent need to address drowning as a significant global health challenge. Our organisation is deeply committed to preventing drowning incidents, and this report underscores the importance of the proactive measures we have championed. Our recent Safer Lives, Stronger Nation report highlights key policy data-led recommendations, including strengthening water safety education and implementing a national water safety plan from 2026. By working together and introducing these evidence-based solutions, we can save lives and build safer communities across the UK.”
The Global Status Report on Drowning Prevention was launched globally on December 13, 2024, at 2:30pm CET in Geneva.
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17/12/2024
In the December 2024 issue of the NWSF Newsletter, we shared news about:
Read the National Water Safety Forum December 2024 Newsletter
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