ISRM child admission policy for unprogrammed swimming featured in the Daily Telegraph

ISRM members who manage public swimming pools have always had to make difficult decisions regarding parent/child supervision ratios in pools - balancing safety with encouraging parents to involve their children in swimming and physical activity.
 
These decisions have been made more difficult in recent weeks as the subject of child admissions has attracted national media interest. Unfortunately, this increased scrutiny by the media has arguably too often been characterised by a lack of understanding as to what ISRM is trying to achieve through its policies on child admissions.
 
Because of this, ISRM recently made its policy on child admissions available to download without charge (click here), and this has proved to be a worthwhile decision, as the more considered voices in the media increase their understanding of the subject.

In particular, the 'Homing Instinct' column, written by Rebecca Abrams in The Daily Telegraph on 5 June 2004 makes interesting reading.

After providing an entertaining introduction describing how overly-strict rules and regulations on this subject would hinder rather than help anti-obesity and pool safety initiatives, Ms Abrams decides to visit ISRM's website to discover the facts of the matter for herself, deciding immediately that: "the rulings are not as draconian as some sports centres would have us believe".
 
Ms Abrams continues by outlining the situations in which ratios can be relaxed in a safe manner, before noting how the policy strikes her as being rooted in basic common sense, as ISRM has argued all along.

Her conclusion follows a similar line: "the guidelines were drawn up to make swimming safer, not impossible".

Whilst ISRM would not agree with every word Ms Abrams writes, it is refreshing to see a carefully considered assessment of the policy appear with such prominence in a national broadsheet.

To link to the whole article, click here.

eNews issue 5