North East Lincolnshire swimming teacher concerned around a third of children can't swim

The Cost of Living Crisis is thought to be having an impact

Child swimming
Author: Andy MarshPublished 10th May 2022

New figures show around a third of children can't swim

The Swimming Teachers Association's research indicates the cost of living crisis is having a huge impact.

Jane Hill is a swim school supervisor from Lincs Inspire which runs leisure facilities in Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Immingham.

She tells us why it’s concerning so many don’t know how to swim.

"Once a child reaches the age of 8 a child is allowed into a swimming pool without an adult so I think they need to be able to swim and be safe."

"Plus we're surrounded by water in this area with beaches and rivers so they do need to be able to swim, it's very important for children."

"Most of us are doing school swimming which is very busy, always trying to help the school so the children get that very important 25 metre badge and that they can tread water."

"We are struggling for swimming teachers so that's one of our biggest problems at the moment which I think a lot of swim schools are finding."

"We're not running our full capacity at the moment due to not having enough teachers."

"We were closed during Covid obviously, when we were able to open because of social distancing it was such limited spaces."

"The volume we did have we were only able to bring a tiny portion back, we're slowly getting back across the sites."