When no one is permitted to use an indoor pool, a certain silence descends. It’s unsettling rather than serene. Years after the lanes were reopened. The harm caused by the silence that hung over hundreds of swimming facilities throughout the United Kingdom during the long months of 2020 and early 2021 is still being felt.
In fact, things had been going well prior to the pandemic. Approximately four million people swam at least twice in a 28-day period between January and March 2020, according to Sport England’s Active Lives Survey. This number increased by about 200,000 from the year before.
Then the lessons ceased, the pools closed, and that number practically vanished overnight. Compared to 2018–19, over two million fewer adults were swimming by the end of 2020. The numbers for the kids were worse. Jane Nickerson, the CEO of Swim England, described the numbers as “not surprising”, but the statement hardly adequately described what had actually occurred. A generation of young students had just lost their perspective.
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Swim England / Sport England |
| Issue | Post-COVID decline in swimming ability across the UK |
| Adults who cannot swim | ~14 million (approx. 1 in 3 British adults) |
| Children failing swim standard | ~1 in 3 leave primary school unable to swim 25m |
| Pools closed since 2010 | Over 500 public swimming pools |
| Children missing lessons | Over 600,000 currently missing out |
| Government response | £63 million one-off energy support fund (2022) |
| Curriculum requirement | All children must swim 25m unaided by age 11 |
According to Swim England, 96% of children completely stopped attending classes during the closures. Some were too young to start over with ease. A bag of swimming gear on a Tuesday afternoon was no longer part of their families’ new routines as others moved on.
Once broken, the habit was obstinately hard to reestablish. The UK was already having difficulties prior to COVID, which makes this especially uncomfortable to sit with. Approximately 14 million adults in Britain, or one in three, are unable to swim a single 25-meter distance.
The situation for kids is nearly as dire: about one in three graduates from elementary school without having mastered the national swimming curriculum. By the age of eleven, every child in England is required by law to be able to swim 25 meters without assistance. That mandate has been silently failing for years in reality.
COVID simply made it impossible to ignore the crisis; it did not cause it. The causes are complex and, in certain situations, truly depressing. Since 2010, more than 500 public pools have closed. After 2020, 76% of the water space that had been lost over the previous 15 years vanished.
Closures typically occur in underprivileged areas; among the most impoverished regions of the nation, 70% of local authorities have seen the biggest drops in pool access. Large pool heating has become prohibitively expensive due to spikes in energy prices, and aging infrastructure necessitates maintenance costs that financially strapped councils just cannot afford.
The pool is often the first to give when something has to. In comparison to five years ago. Swimming schools both private commercial enterprises and programs administered by local governments are now attempting to operate in a setting that is physically smaller. Financially more constrained. And demographically more dire.
There is a huge demand. Since reopening. Anecdotal reports from locations all over the nation describe crowded parent-and-baby sessions. Months-long waiting lists for beginner classes. And teachers working back-to-back lessons in pools that aren’t quite large enough for the numbers they’re trying to serve.
The industry seems to be improvising more than it did in the past. In many regions of the nation, the previous model weekly 25-minute classes for school groups, held at a local public pool is failing. Municipal facilities that were once essential to schools are either closed or only partially operational.
Currently, about 600,000 kids aren’t taking swimming lessons, in part because there aren’t enough certified teachers. Since many swimming professionals left the industry during the closures and did not return, the teacher shortage, which existed before the pandemic, has become more acute. Organizations willing to reconsider the fundamentals of logistics have responded to all of this in some of the most intriguing ways.
Swim: For example, ED has created what it refers to as a “pop-up pool” program, which involves putting modular, specially designed swimming pools right on school playgrounds. The fixed, lockable, and on-site management of the structure eliminates the transportation expenses and scheduling nightmares that make off-site instruction so challenging for underfunded primaries.
A 160% improvement in children meeting the 25-meter standard and a 492% improvement in safe self-rescue techniques were noted in their 2024 impact report, which included nearly 7,600 students.
Even taking into account the unique circumstances of a rigorous three-week program, those are startling figures. Models such as these might be more than just a clever workaround; they might be a true shift. The weekly, brief, and facility-dependent traditional swimming lesson was already having trouble yielding reliable outcomes.
Coaches and program designers have been forced to consider whether efficiency is more important than frequency in the post-COVID era, and the answer is frequently in the affirmative. This reckoning was also experienced by coaches in competitive aquatics. Many discovered that shorter, more concentrated sessions yielded outcomes comparable to the previous high-volume strategy because there was less pool time available after reopening.
Some discovered that they yielded superior outcomes. It is difficult to ignore the social injustice that permeates all of this. By the end of primary school, only 45% of children in the most deprived areas of England can swim 25 metres, compared to 76% in the least deprived.
A child from a lower-income family is much more likely to be unable to swim when they graduate from primary school. This is not due to a difference in skill, but rather to transportation, expense, and whether or not their school offers a program. Remarkably, 40% of kids who are unable to swim have never received any kind of swimming instruction at school.
The postcode lottery is real, and it uncomfortably clearly divides people based on their class. to help pools control energy costs, the government provided a £63 million one-time lifeline in 2022. Additionally, there are ongoing discussions regarding PE and Sport Premium funding that schools can use for swimming.
The structural pressures are still present. Many pools still run on “very thin margins”, according to Nickerson. It’s still unclear whether the network of public facilities can endure in anything approaching its current state without consistent government support.
Every closure takes away not only a recreational facility but also a piece of infrastructure that communities seldom regain once they lose it. Perhaps the most significant change is in awareness. There is now a greater awareness among the general public that the swimming crisis is real.
That it has real safety implications (drowning is still one of the main causes of unintentional child deaths) and that COVID accelerated an already problematic situation. In the UK, swimming schools are experimenting, stretching, and adapting. Some are doing well. Others are hanging on in silence.
The majority of the lanes are now open, and kids are returning to the water. The question of whether enough of them receive the necessary instruction before the next disruption occurs remains unanswered.
i) https://www.swimdesignspace.com/blog/uk-swimming-crisis-why-millions-cant-swim
ii) https://thepehub.co.uk/blog/national-curriculum-swimming