Association between air temperature and unintentional drowning risk in the United Kingdom 2012–2019: A nationwide case-crossover study – Hills, S.P., Hobbs, M., Brown, P., Tipton, M. & Barwood, M. Preventative Medicine 2024; 179

Drowning and disasters: climate change priorities – Peden, A.E, Chisholm, S., Meddings, D.R. & Abrahams, J. The Lancet Planetary Health 2024; 8(6).

At the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion in New Delhi, India, on 02–04 September, NWSF member, Carlene McAvoy, presented two papers: “Water Safety Scotland – Scotland’s Water Safety Programme” and “Scotland's Drowning and Incident Review – Insight and implications”.

New research released by Swim England shows that swimming lessons not only help children gain vital water safety skills, but also help build confidence, contribute to happiness and well-being, and foster the development of social skills to create friendships. Find out more here.

Campaigns

World Drowning Prevention Day

To mark World Drowning Prevention Day (WDPD), numerous activities took place across the UK.

Highlights from England

• Brighton Pier in East Sussex and Rivington Pike in Lancashire were ‘turned blue’.
• Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service ran bystander rescue training for the local community, and RNLI staff and volunteers pledged their support for WDPD.
• Tyne and Wear Fire & Rescue Service organised a partner event to visually share ‘Float to Live’ safety messaging, and RNLI fundraisers shared water safety messaging using sign language

Highlights from Scotland

Water Safety Scotland, alongside partners, hosted Scotland’s Water Safety Open Day. The event, which took place at the new location of Lomond Shores in Balloch, was visited by approximately 3,600 members of the public. The day included taster sessions on how to safely take part in sports such as stand-up paddleboarding, as well as activities to demonstrate and promote water safety and drowning prevention. The event was attended by a number of high-level attendees, including Parliamentary MSPs and the Minister for Community Safety.

Highlights from Wales

In Wales, a bilingual (English and Welsh) social media pack was produced for members of Water Safety Wales. Posts were shared by several key organisations, including Public Health Wales, the Welsh Government and several emergency services. Water safety was promoted at events in Llyn Tegid and Llyn Pardarn, with the Fire and Rescue Service demonstrating water safety techniques. Cathays Park One, a prominent Welsh Government building in central Cardiff, turned blue to mark the day.

The World Health Organization held a webinar on 30 July to celebrate the day with contributions from around the world. A recording of the webinar can be viewed here.

Don’t Drink and Drown 

With the Royal Life Saving Society UK’s (RLSS UK) annual Don’t Drink and Drown campaign on 16–22 September 2024, we encourage you to get involved in whatever way you can to show your support.

On average, 73 people lose their lives each year through a substance-related drowning – the equivalent of more than a quarter (29%) of UK accidental drowning fatalities.

Don’t Drink and Drown is about encouraging smart decision-making when drinking and being on, in or around water. The campaign targets students to urge them to be responsible for their friends and #BeAMate if they have had too much to drink, and the campaign educates people on what to do and how to help friends return home safely after a night out. 

Seeking to raise awareness and prevent more tragic drownings from taking place, the RLSS UK team – with the help of partners and volunteers – will be holding informative activities and events in towns and cities across the UK and Ireland.

Please help RLSS UK share vital messages online by resharing its #BeAMate posts and tagging @rlssuk – with your help, we can make this year’s Don’t Drink and Drown campaign the most impactful yet.

However, the work does not stop there… 

RLSS UK is already planning to deliver an impactful December Don’t Drink and Drown campaign so that everyone can enjoy the festivities safely this Christmas period. 

Save the date: 12–20 December 2024 

Get your resources: www.rlss.org.uk/dont-drink-and-drown 

Bath seat safety

RoSPA has updated its key advice around bath seat safety. The key message is: Using a baby bath seat? Always keep your child within arm’s reach.

For babies and young children, bath time is about more than just getting clean – it can be a chance to play or to unwind and relax before bed. However, as fun as bath time can be, sadly accidents still happen.

Always stay within arm’s reach of your little one when they’re in the bath. Wet soapy babies are slippery. If they slide down or roll over, they can’t always right themselves, and you won’t always hear them trying. 

Baby bath seats might look helpful, but can easily topple over, and by leaving your hands free they can provide a false sense of security. As babies can drown quickly, quietly, and in only a few centimetres of water, you’re better off without one – supervision is key.

Read more about the simple steps to make sure our little ones stay safe in the tub... https://www.rospa.com/keeping-kids-safe-hub/bathtime

Coast Clever

The heat has been on for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to make this year’s Coast Clever summer safety campaign the best yet.

The campaign is primarily aimed at younger males since WAID data shows that males accounted for 83% of all drownings in 2023. With HM Coastguard seeing an increase in incidents throughout the summer, it’s a vital time for sharing coastal safety messaging.

A dramatic case study of a rescue involving four university students was also created alongside the campaign. The students, who matched the key profile of males under 30 from inland cities, were cut off by the tide while on holiday in Whitby. Their ordeal thankfully had a positive outcome, but the group were keen to help promote the campaign and the central message to check tide times.

The campaign has received wide media coverage, including on ITV Meridian, BBC Wales and ITV News.

Download the partner toolkit, including all assets.

Find out more about Coast Clever.

Communicating safety around high-risk river structures

The Environment Agency (EA) has produced a collection of social media messages, videos and stills focusing on water safety at high-risk river structures such as weirs, sluices, locks and moorings. The EA is using these in combination with existing partner campaign materials to target male teens, walkers/runners and enthusiasts who visit such locations. The campaign focuses on highlighting the dangers these structures pose and how to avoid getting into trouble and includes messaging such as #FloatToLive and #CallTellThrow. 

The EA has been using these materials on its Instagram, Facebook and  X channels over the summer and plans to continue doing so over the winter months.

The EA is asking for your help to highlight the dangers these structures pose. All the digital assets are available to freely download from Dropbox and use on your own channels. The EA simply asks that you tag @EnvAgency when you use them.

Guidance

Updates to “Safe supervision of programmed swimming lessons and training sessions in swimming pools”

The Swim England, Scottish Swimming and Swim Wales document, “Safe supervision of programmed swimming lessons and training sessions in swimming pools,” has been updated following the recent revision of HSG179, Managing health and safety in swimming pools.

The main changes since the November 2022 version are:

• What makes a teacher or coach (HSG179 para 102) suitably competent to provide safe supervision for their class/squad?
•  Additional links and references to sections of HSG179.
• Clearer formatting.

You can access the new guidance here.

Public rescue equipment decision tree

The provision of public rescue equipment (PRE) has been a key topic over the past few years in the UK. The NWSF Inland Advisory Group have put together a PRE decision tree to accompany key advice and guidance from the following two documents:

Managing safety at inland waters - RoSPA

Water safety partnerships - Guidance | National Water Safety Forum

The PRE decision tree is free to use and will shortly be online on the NWSF website.

Events

NWSF Flooding webinar: 14 October 2024, 10:00–11:30. Sign-up link: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/eaa7aca5-6268-418f-ae6b-d591cc85d51f@49662788-c10b-4940-a0c8-5e016fc28d18

RoSPA Water Safety Conference: 12 March 2025 (location TBC)

Message from the Chair

Warmer weather towards the end of May brought the inevitable increase in people flocking to the coast and inland waterways... and sadly the loss of lives.

The loss of two teenage boys from Newcastle, who simply went out for some fun in the River Tyne, is a stark reminder of why we all need to continue to try to educate people about water safety risks and the importance of being well prepared to enjoy water safely. Our thoughts are with the families and community who have been impacted.

May also saw a lot of activity for the National Water Safety Forum (NWSF), as we prepared for the release of the annual WAID report, which outlines analysis of the fatalities in water during 2023. This report has become an important source of information for all agencies and forums working to improve water safety. The link to the report is below and I’d like to thank all those involved who have helped to produce and promote it.

The NWSF is also involved in supporting the work of the World Health Organization in undertaking its upcoming review of drowning. The final report, due later in 2024, will no doubt draw some important conclusions and recommendations for all nations and point to good practice around the world.

The NWSF and its members are also busy making plans for the refresh of its advisory groups and strategy. A lot has changed since the initial UK Drowning Prevention Strategy was published in 2016, with the strengthening of Water Safety Scotland and Water Safety Wales, and the early development of a new forum of partners in Ireland, so it's important to ensure our national UK forum remains fit for purpose. 

As the summer arrives and we start to plan for the holiday season, it will be important to continue to share the core messages of our #RespectTheWater campaign.

Finally, as my time as Chair of the NWSF will be ending later this year and we’ll be seeking someone to take over this role, this is my penultimate newsletter. So, with that in mind, may I wish all members a positive summer season and thank you in advance for what I know is always the most demanding period for all those involved in water safety and response.

Dawn Whittaker

Chair, NWSF

Research and publications

WAID data release

The public have been urged to “learn what to do in an emergency”, as the latest statistics from WAID show 236 accidental drownings in 2023.

Key statistics

• Of the 236 drownings, 157 were in England; 47 in Scotland; 28 in Wales; and 4 in Northern Ireland.
• Males continue to over represent, with 83% of accidental fatalities.
• Everyday activities, such as walking and running, accounted for 48% of accidental fatalities.
• 83% of accidental fatalities were male.
• Males aged 60-69 were the highest group for accidental fatalities.
• 63% of accidental fatalities happened at inland waters.
• Recreational activities accounted for 44% of accidental fatalities.

A full trend report for the UK and by individual nation can be accessed here.

The interactive dashboard can be accessed here.

Campaigns

Float to Live

The RNLI launched its 2024 Float to Live campaign in the last week of May. The campaign is underpinned by joint research with the University of Portsmouth, which highlights that everyone floats differently depending on factors including experience, practice, and the type of open water environment, e.g. freshwater vs salt water, moving water vs still water. The campaign has been independently tested using focus groups to ensure the message is understood clearly by people from different genders, background, ages and communities, so it should be useful to everyone, both inland and around the coast.

The RNLI is asking for your help to spread this message far and wide, so please share the campaign, both personally with friends and family, but also professionally via appropriate channels and networks. Various free resources are available to download from the RNLI website if you’d like to support the campaign. This includes a compelling Float to Live video, inspiring stories about how the campaign has helped save lives, an easily shareable 30-second social media video, comprehensive instructions on how to float effectively, static social artwork, and much more. 

To support the campaign, follow the links below:

Float to Live campaign

Survivor Float to Live stories

Float Toolkit

Drowning Prevention Week

Royal Life Saving Society UK’s Drowning Prevention Week (DPW) is one of the biggest water safety campaigns of the year, targeting families, carers, teachers and instructors of children aged five to fifteen years old with the aim of educating them about how to enjoy water safely. The campaign begins in just a couple of days (15–22 June) so please get involved!

This year, RLSS UK has updated lots of fantastic, free DPW resources using well-loved characters from its previous campaigns. These are available to download now, so please do make use of them during the campaign week. We particularly love the new colouring and activity sheets!

No child should drown, and with the right water safety education – such as knowledge of the Water Safety Code – accidental drownings are preventable. Please help RLSS UK by sharing its life-saving messaging far and wide this DPW. Together, we can reach even more families and ensure that everyone understands how to enjoy water safely, ahead of the summer holidays.

World Drowning Prevention Day (WDPD)

WDPD is held annually on 25 July. This global advocacy event serves as an opportunity to highlight the devastating and profound impact of drowning on families and communities, and offers life-saving solutions to prevent such tragedies.

The WHO is asking countries and partners to respond to the call to action for global drowning prevention: 

Do one thing

If you’re not yet involved in drowning prevention, just do one thing to support.

Improve one thing

If you’ve already started to work in your area on drowning prevention, then improve one thing

Add one thing

If you’re deeply engaged with drowning prevention, add one thing – there’s always more that can be done

The WHO has provided suggestions on how individuals, communities and countries can support the campaign:

• visit the official WHO webpage
• access the WHO WDPD resource materials and campaign page here
• watch the recording of the WHO-led WDPD 2023 information webinar, which took place on 22 May 2023 (Passcode: HwKq3a*j).

NWSF - Led WDPD 2024 Webinar

The NWSF hosted a webinar on 06 June covering the UK’s plans to support WDPD 2024. If you missed it, watch the recording here.

The slides of the webinar can be found here.

Call to action

As the NWSF works with a broad range of organisations and partners, we want to share the powerful work that so many organisations are doing across the board to reduce drowning fatalities.

1. Decide how you are going to support WDPD through the ‘Do one thing, Improve one thing, Add one thing’ call from WHO – watch the recording and read the slides for ideas.
2. After WDPD, share your stories with us! We want to show the positive impact our partners have across the UK. If you have an example of how drowning prevention education has made a difference to an individual or community, please email us at info@nationalwatersafety.org.uk.

Thank you for your continued support in raising awareness of water safety and drowning prevention.

Guidance

Water Safety Signage

Following the Water Safety Signage Research Report released earlier this year, Water Safety Scotland has released a full guidance document on the creation of water safety signage for use in Scotland.

The guidance has one key objective: to provide a step-by-step guide for landowners and managers to create consistent and easy-to-understand water safety signage. It complements previous guidance on Unique Location Codes.

The guidance will now be implemented across three or four areas of Scotland within the next nine months. The full guidance document is available online here.

Product Recalls

There were a substantial number of PPE products recalled from various outlets listed on 05/04/2024. Please see details below.

Product Recall: Camouflage Adult Buoyancy Vest sold via AliExpress (2403-0044)

Product Recall: WENTSEN Adult Buoyancy Vest sold via AliExpress (2403-0045)

Product Recall: Unisex Neoprene Super Light Buoyancy Vest sold via Wish (2310-0057)

Product Recall: Professional Polyester Adult Kid Life Jacket Orange Universal sold via AliExpress (2402-0073)

Other news

Water Safety Wales held a very successful event, A Wales Without Drowning: Our Joint Vision, at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay on 08 May.

The event celebrated the strengthened link between Water Safety Wales and the Welsh Government, and looked at how we can work together to strive for our vision of a Wales without drowning.

Keynote speaker was Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, who pledged his commitment to supporting drowning prevention in Wales.

Other speakers were Chris Cousens, Water Safety Wales Chair; Fergus Feeney, Chief Executive of Swim Wales, who spoke about the need to increase school swimming and water safety education in schools in Wales; and Leeanne Bartley, the mother of Mark Allen who sadly drowned in 2018, who spoke of her #MarkAllensLaw petition and campaign, which was the catalyst for the closer relationship between Water Safety Wales and the Welsh Government.

RoSPA, who also attended the event, has recently been awarded funding from the Welsh Government to support the delivery of the Wales Drowning Prevention Strategy 2020–2026 over the next year and hopefully beyond.

The event, which was kindly sponsored by Newport East MS, John Griffiths, also included displays of emergency service equipment and practical water safety demonstrations.

The following week, on 15 May, John Griffiths MS asked a question to Huw Irranca-Davies MS, in a Plenary session of the Senedd, about the event and the Welsh Government’s commitment to Water Safety work in Wales more generally. You can watch Mr Irranca-Davies’ answer at 1hr 34 mins of the recording here.

There will be a fuller debrief of the event at the next Water Safety Wales group meeting on 26 June.

Opportunities

RoSPA are looking for a Trainee Water & Leisure Consultant to join their team. If you are interested in finding out more about this opportunity, please visit the vacancies page on the RoSPA website or contact Izzy Albutt, Head of RoSPA’s Academy (ialbutt@rospa.com ).

Events and opportunities

Message from the Chair

As I write this, it’s still November… and it’s still raining. 

We’ve seen flooding across the UK caused by storms Babet and Ciarán and, sadly, some loss of life. In my day job (Emergency Services), it never ceases to amaze me that many people try to drive through floodwater in vehicles and get stuck, while others head to the coast to try to capture dramatic photos of waves crashing against piers and coastlines, only to underestimate the risk and get swept off their feet or, worse, into the sea!

At this time of the year, therefore, we need to spread the word about winter water safety, and in this newsletter you can read updates on forthcoming campaigns that can help get the message across. Gathering data and intelligence, and conducting research, continue to be important for NWSF, and we’re pleased to be collaborating with the IDRA (International Drowning Research Alliance) and the WHO (World Health Organization), and we’ll continue to do so into 2024 through our membership. It’s also important that we work with academic institutions and government departments to keep abreast of the opportunities ahead. For example, we know that several government departments are working together to assess the impacts of extreme weather and, of course, weather and raised temperatures have an important bearing on water safety.

The NWSF Co-ordinating group have recently met, and you can follow up on their work on the website.  We’re in very early stages of discussions to build on the success of WSS (Water Safety Scotland) and WSW (Water Safety Wales) by seeking to collaborate with partners to create WSNI (Water Safety Northern Ireland). We’re also starting to consider a refresh of the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy early next year. So, if you’re involved in an advisory group, I encourage you to gather your thoughts on how we can best do this.

Finally, as this is the last newsletter of 2023, I would like to wish you all seasonal greetings, peace, and time with those you care about this Christmas.

Dawn Whittaker

Chair, NWSF

Research and conferences

Spatial clustering of drowning in the UK

Dr Martin Barwood and colleagues have released research which examines the spatial clustering of intentional and unintentional drownings using density-based spatial clustering of applications with the noise method.

You can read their research paper here.

Justin-Paul Scarr and Dr Jagnoor Jagnoor recently published a research paper on the development of a conceptual definition of drowning prevention using the Delphi method.

You can read their paper here.

Local authority approaches to managing water safety - A 10-year comparative analysis (Scotland)

RoSPA has released research which looks at local authority approaches to water safety. Originally undertaken in 2013, and again in 2018, the research has been repeated to gain insight in 2023. The research shows a positive increase in the majority of indicators since 2013.

You can read the report here.

Drowning and Incident Review Presentations

Carlene McAvoy (RoSPA) and James Sullivan (SFRS) attended the 11th European Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 05–06 October. Carlene and James presented their innovative work on drowning prevention in Scotland, in particular the Drowning and Incident Review (DIR).

They also presented on DIR at the Physiological Society’s Conference on Drowning Prevention and Treatment in late October.

World Health Organisation's Global Report for Drowning Prevention

In May this year, the World Health Assembly adopted its first-ever resolution on drowning prevention. This resolution calls on governments and their partners, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), to accelerate action on drowning prevention with immediate effect. The resolution also requests the WHO to prepare a global status report on drowning prevention.

The report, which will be the first of its kind, will measure the country-specific magnitude of drowning, as well as the implementation of evidence-based intervention to prevent and respond to drowning. NWSF was designated to collate a response on behalf of the UK as a whole.

To read more about the report and the UK response, read the blog on the RoSPA website.

New guidance

The NWSF Inland and Coastal Groups will shortly be releasing guidance document on how to set up a Water Safety Partnership. The document brings together three approaches to creating a water safety group, the six key elements to consider when setting up a group, as well as four case studies from across the UK.

The document will be launched at a webinar on 24 January 2024. You can register for the webinar here.

Campaign updates

Respect The Water

The Respect The Water (RTW) working group held a meeting in Birmingham on 19 October to plan the optimisation of the campaign programme over the next two years.

One of the notable discussions was around messaging and how to take it to the next level.

A decision was made was to rebrand the 999 campaign message and change it to “Call, Tell, Throw”, the next step to help people react to someone in the water.

Over the next few weeks, media assets on the RTW website will be amended to reflect this new messaging.

In the coming months, the group will be looking at amplifying existing stakeholder campaigns, such as “Don’t Drink and Drown” and plans to launch more “media moments” to raise water safety awareness around the subjects of cold/warm weather, flooding and alcohol.

Finally, a reminder… if you’re looking to raise water safety awareness over the winter months, please make use of our updated winter social media assets which include ice safety.

Don't Drink and Drown

We’re currently just over halfway through RLSS UK’s Don’t Drink and Drown campaign; thank you for your support so far this week and let’s keep up the momentum! You might have noticed that we’ve changed the look and feel of the campaign for December, with some brighter graphics and Christmas-themed posts.

You might have noticed that we’ve changed the look and feel of the campaign for December, with some brighter graphics and Christmas-themed posts. We’ll have more new posts to share over the next few days. 

As we continue with the messaging, please head to the various RLSS UK socials and share as far and wide as possible so that we can spread the word to “Be a Mate” and encourage everyone to find a safe route home away from the water.

If you’ll be taking part in any events for Don’t Drink and Drown, or if you’ve already done so, don’t forget to tag @RLSSUK on socials and send any images to marketing@rlss.org.uk.

Float to Live

RNLI needs your vote!

RNLI’s Float to Live 2023 film is in the running for the Smiley Charity Film Awards and needs your help to get to the next round. Just a few clicks are needed to sign up, vote and share (all for free) to help RNLI get to the next stage. 

Vote here. 

Update on RLSS UK’s work with GoodSAM

RLSS UK has worked with GoodSAM since 2018, helping connect first responders to those experiencing a medical emergency. The partnership has now taken another step to help save even more lives and the app has been further developed to include locations of water rescue equipment in and around towns and cities to allow first responders to locate them quickly.

If you’ve already registered as a first responder on the app, or if you have the appropriate first-aid qualifications and intend to register, we encourage you to begin logging where items of water rescue equipment can be found to allow quick and easy access when they’re needed. The app will also allow those registered to report if equipment is missing or damaged. The development of the app will be launched in December, and you can find how to register below.

Registering on the GoodSAM App | Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK)

Step-by-step Guide to Registering Water Rescue Equipment on the GoodSAM App | Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK)

Upcoming 'Respect The Water' Safety video

A powerful film about the devastating impact of the loss of a father to drowning will be released in January, under the Respect The Water banner.

Representatives from HM Coastguard, East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and the RNLI teamed up to produce the film, which hears from 27-year-old Robbie Jones as he tells the story of losing his dad Gareth to the sea in January 2021.

It is hoped that the tragic incident can help to educate people on the dangers of open water in bad weather and, ultimately, prevent anyone else suffering the same fate.

Launch of water safety education framework for 3–18 year olds

As part of the UK’s Drowning Prevention Strategy, NWSF aims to drive a generational shift in water safety education in England, with an increasing awareness of the everyday risks of water to ensure messaging reaches families as a whole. 

School-aged children are not a high-risk group, however drowning risk increases as children reach teenage years, peaking among 20–29 year olds. Encouraging safer attitudes and improving skills and behaviours ahead of time is an essential ongoing priority. It’s worth noting that the number of children who drowned in England increased from 20 in 2019/20 to 37 in 2021/22, which is a worrying development.

Recognising the pivotal role of education in drowning prevention, we continue to support practitioners to further develop children and young people’s awareness of the dangers of open water, while enabling them to safely participate in water-based activities. 

In 2024, we’ll be launching a messaging framework to support the provision of age- and stage-appropriate content for young people aged 3–18 years old in England. This will support practitioners in the development, delivery and evaluation of new resources, materials and interventions for an identified audience. This is a critical step to support those working in this space and will contribute to future work to ensure that more young people are able to access and develop valuable lifesaving knowledge, skills and understanding. 

Coasteering Incident Report

Following a coasteering fatality in 2019, a coroner has issued a Regulation 28 ‘Report to Prevent Future Deaths’ to address concerns about the activity. Details of the incident and the Regulation 28 can be found below.

Dorset coasteering victim's fitness not checked, coroner says - BBC News

Prevention of future deaths report 2023

Product Safety Recall

A product recall has been issued for Swimbubs Float Jacket Buoyancy Aid (2309-0155). The product presents a high risk of drowning.

Events and opportunities

• 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Delhi, 02–04 September 2024
• RoSPA Water Safety Conference has been postponed until later in 2024. Dates to be confirmed.