Essex swim school braces for cost of living crisis: "We've had people drop out for financial reasons"
They say children need to learn to swim as it's a life saving skill
Swimming teachers in Essex say they're bracing to feel the impact of the cost of living crisis.
With energy prices rising, many swim schools who hire out pools for their lessons are being handed increasing bills to cover hire and heating costs for venues.
Denise Kemp has run Kingfishers Swimming School in Rochford with her daughter, Sophie, and other members of the family for over thirty years.
During the pandemic they didn't take wages to keep the business afloat.
Whilst they haven't had their hire costs increased yet, Sophie says it's only a matter of time: "We're very fortunate at the moment that our our premises haven't increased our rent as of yet, but we do have that worry in the back of our minds because of the energy prices increasing.
"There's also been a lot of chlorine shortages which adds to the worry. We're probably one of the only pools at the moment that hasn't had an increase yet, but we understand it's likely to be on the way...
"It's also not just the hire costs, it's trying to maintain a good level of pay for our teachers too."
So far, Sophie says Kingfishers has made every effort to take on the cost increases themselves, passing on as little as possible to their customers: "We're trying our best to suck in as many of the costs as we can. At the moment we've made very few changes to our cost for our customers.
"It's always been our priority to offer classes to as many families as we possibly can, because we do genuinely believe that learning to swim is a life saving skill."
"We've only increased our fees by very tiny fraction."
Since the cost of living crisis took hold, Sophie says they've noticed clients minding their money: "We've had a few who've dropped out for financial reasons.
"We do try do give extensions and we have payment plans for some people who come to us and are really honest about their situations, but at the end of the day we are running a business and we do need to have those places paid for.
"It's really difficult... it's heart-breaking."
Denise mentioned some families, who are trying to save money, have taken to desperate measures: "We have families that come and pay for one place in the swimming school and then alternate their children.
"It's such a shame. They can't afford to bring two or three children every week, so one child will come one week and another will come the next."
Denise told us she believes strongly that every child should learn to swim, and think the government should do more to enable this: "Think how many people drowned this summer... it's because of a lack of education and swimming skills and the deaths should never have happened... especially in a place like Essex, surrounded by water...
"A lot of schools aren't doing swimming lessons anymore, and if they are it's only for a few weeks.
"It would be a massive help if all children got swimming lessons at school and more time was dedicated to it on the national curriculum."
Sophie and Denise are now looking ahead, working out how they can teach as many children across Essex how to swim as possible: " We'd really like to get a proper charity up and running so that we can support all those local children in learning to swim, not just those with parents who can afford it.
"I think there's going to be a real need for that over the next few years."