Nepean Swim & Fitness.
Learn-to-Swim Service is Essential With swim schools facing permanent closure, Karen Bentley calls for learn-to-swim services to be classed as an essential service
I
t’s time for swim schools to be reclassified as an essential service to reduce drownings and keep Australian children safer. Drowning remains the number one cause of accidental death among children aged five years and under in Australia and I believe that this tragic statistic will not improve with swim schools across the country having been repeatedly closed during Coronavirus lockdowns. With swim schools across the nation not classed as an essential service, thousands of Australian children have missed out on learning this crucial lifesaving skill over the past 16 months. Bentley also advised that despite a 100% decrease in income during lockdown, swim schools are struggling to obtain government assistance, threatening their ability to reopen after lockdown. While there are a number of important drowning prevention initiatives, learning to swim is by far the primary driver to control our national drowning statistics. Swim safety is achieved by skill repetition, and crucial swimming skills learnt are lost without practice. 12 children aged 0-4 years drowned in Australia in 2019/20, a 37% decrease on the previous year (and) we are very concerned that repeated lockdowns will
have a tragic influence on these figures. You only have to look at what happened last year in Victoria - following multiple lockdowns, Victoria reported a record number of drownings from July to December. I believe that swim schools should be recognised as an essential educational facility and should be treated the same way as pre-school and other educational institutions. Furthermore, swim schools should be exempt from the payroll limit rendering us ineligible for government assistance during lockdown, in the same way that tourism, accommodation and
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hospitality are exempt - at least cafes and restaurants can serve takeaway, whereas we are unable to trade at all. It just doesn’t seem right. And we are not alone - many local businesses face the same difficulties - (but) the exemptions seem pretty arbitrary. While swim schools have been closed in lockdown, despite the proven safety of the indoor learn-to-swim centre environment, other early learning settings remain open. This is shown by a recent study from the UK’s Imperial College which identified that chlorine deactivates the Coronavirus in 30 seconds and a US study of over 300,000 patrons of indoor swimming pools that reported zero incidents of COVID-19 infections in the aquatic environment. It’s frustrating and inconsistent that you can take your child to preschool, daycare, vacation care, Woolworths, JB Hi-Fi and Bunnings during lockdown, but you can’t bring them to small learn to swim classes in an environment that has been proven safe multiple times both here and overseas, with defined learnto-swim class times ensuring limited occupancy. We too have COVIDSafety plans, QR code check in and socially distancing measures in place, so we can also record the visit data as mandated, whilst delivering a lifesaving skill. With swim schools across the country in a difficult financial position, Terry Spinks, Operations Manager at Nepean Swim and Fitness, commented “unfortunately, the long term prognosis for swim schools isn’t looking good. “Most are small ‘Mum and Dad’ businesses who have been hit hard by Covid and are only just beginning to recover. During lockdown we earn zero income and given the nature of our business will still incur significant costs whilst closed, but we are not eligible for any financial assistance from the NSW government during this recent lockdown.” Terry Spinks (left) and Karen Bentley of Nepean Swim & Fitness.
