Daily Archives: June 17, 2018

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Do you know how to keep you family water safe?

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WITH SUMMER FAST APPROACHING, TEACHING CHILDREN TO BE SAFE NEAR WATER BECOMES INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT

Latest stats show that 56 children under the age of 11 years old drowned in the UK in the last 5 years, with more than 300 people accidentally drowning every year.

And for every drowning death that occurs, there are more than 10 near drownings, with many of these leading to life changing injuries
We at the RLSS UK strongly believe that lives could be saved if children and young people were taught how to be safe near water.

We launched the Drowning Prevention Week campaign five years ago to help put water safety at the forefront of everyone’s mind in the lead up to summer, a high-risk time of year for drowning. 

Drowning Prevention Week, this year running from 15-25 June, is a national, awareness raising campaign and every year schools, leisure centres, community groups, businesses and MPs use our free downloadable resources to teach their local communities how to stay safe near water.

We want to equip everyone, young and old, with basic water safety skills to help them identify risks and make informed choices around water based activities.

 

There are a number of things you can do to help keep your family safe this summer:

At home

• Always use self-closing gates, fences and locks to prevent children from gaining access to pools of water
• Securely cover all water storage tanks and drains
• Empty paddling pools and buckets as soon as they have been used. Always turn paddling pools upside down once empty

• Always supervise bath time (never leave children unattended). Empty the bath as soon as possible after use

On holiday

• When researching your holiday, or arriving at your destination, check the safety arrange-ments of any water-based activities and if there is lifeguard cover at the pool or beach
• Check bathing sites for hazards, check the safest places to swim and always read the signs – find out what local warning signs and flags mean. Take time to check the depth, water flow and layout of pools
• Swim with any children in your care – it’s more fun and you can keep them close and safe
• On beaches check when the tide will be high and low and make sure that you won’t be cut off from the beach exit by the rising tide. Also, be aware of dangerous rip-currents
• Inflatable dinghies or lilos are a well-known hazard – each year there are drownings as people on inflatables are blown out to sea. Do not use them in open water
• Do not swim near to or dive from rocks, piers, breakwater or coral
• Swim parallel to the beach and close to the shore
We believe that the majority of drowning incidents can be prevented, especially with children. No family should ever have to go through the pain of losing a child through drowning. Making sure everyone is aware of the basic principles of water safety helps to keep families safe, and still enjoy the water. 

We don’t want to stop people having fun in the water, far from it, we want everyone to have fun and enjoy the summer weather. But it is important to remember that drowning can, and does happen, and that there are things you can do to prevent tragedy. 

To get involved with the campaign, find out what your local leisure centre is doing or visit our campain wesbite for our free resources at dpw.rlss.org.uk.

Stay safe this summer!

Karen Welsh, RLSS UK Campaign Manager

For more information about RLSS UK: visit their website at www.rlss.org.uk, follow them on Twitter @RLSSUK, visit their Facebook page – www.facebook.com/RLSSUK, join their LinkedIn page – @rlssuk