Detailed scheme information

What is RoPPPs?

The RoPPPs encourages a properly qualified base of pool plant professionals who:

Have gained recognised and approved qualifications.
Can demonstrate the underpinning knowledge required for their working environment.
Are committed to Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

The ISRM has introduced the Register to raise the standard of competence in plant rooms across the country and assist employers who regard safe effective operation of pools as a priority, to meet the requirements of the Health and Safety Executive approved document ‘Managing Health & Safety in Swimming Pools (HSG 179)’. Improving standards of professionalism is ISRM’s way of making pools safer, more hygienic and healthier for people to use in a world where increasing levels of positive healthy exercise is a major public health priority.

HSG 179 states under section 327 ’Pool operators will need to check that staff understand and follow all procedures and responsibilities. Monitoring and review of the effectiveness of arrangements should then follow. Details of actual training sessions will need to be recorded and reviewed. Information, instruction and training are the essential requirements for all staff involved in the storage, handling, and use of swimming pool chemicals’.

ISRM are recognised by the Health and Safety Executive for this kind of training. The National Pool Plant Operators Qualification is the ISRM’s approved training programme for staff identified above and is now a qualification recognised on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority’s National Qualifications Framework. A combination of this qualification and a commitment to demonstrate CPD every five years goes a long way to satisfying the requirements of the Health and Safety Executive.

By creating the Register of Pool Plant Professionals the ISRM can now offer a system of regulation for all pool plant professionals involved in the swimming pool sector of the sport and recreation industry. Furthermore the RoPPPs creates a framework within which an individual pool plant operator can achieve the highest standards of professionalism, linked to best practice in the sport and recreation industry.

ISRM have developed the Register in response to changes in the qualifications structure as the only way to independently demonstrate that the pool plant professional’s knowledge of swimming pool water theory and practice is up to date and relevant, providing a basis on which to build competence. The Register is a central feature of the professionalism of the swimming pool industry that is essential to providing customers, users, schools, the public and partners with the necessary level of confidence in the quality and safety of services provided.

Registration signifies that a pool plant professional has met ISRM standards of good practice which are in line with the national and internationally recognised standards of the Pool Water Treatment Advisory Group (PWTAG), Central European Norm (CEN) and World Health Organisation (WHO).

How do you get on the Register – and stay on it?

If you are one of the 12,000 people with a current NPPO certificate then you will automatically appear on the register.