PRESIDENT’S COLUMN with Deborah

It’s an exciting time for the charity as we look forward to our first conference in three years. It is always wonderful to meet our members face-to-face.

The team at our headquarters has put together a great itinerary with some amazing speakers.

I look forward to meeting and exchanging ideas with as many of you as possible.

The last six months have been hectic, visiting clubs, branches and members all over the UK and Ireland.

You are our heroes and hearing about the amazing rescues, courses delivered, lifesaving sport events organised and everything else you do has been wonderful, thank you. If I can, I will always try and accept an invitation.

We have strengthened the Board of Trustees with the appointment of three new Trustees. They all bring a wealth of knowledge to the society in their areas of expertise, finance, commercial and Governance - welcome and thank you.

Have a great summer, keep safe and see you soon.

Deborah Hunt Your President

32 Pool Technology

33 Guidance Information on guidance documents

34 Consultancy How

Robert Gofton, RLSS UK CEO

We all know that swimming pools are an essential part of the UK’s sports and leisure infrastructure, providing opportunities for exercise, recreation, employment, lifesaving clubs, and our competitions. However, many swimming pools in the UK face financial challenges that threaten their viability and accessibility to the public. To address this issue, various forms of financial support are available to swimming pools in the UK. In the spring budget, the Government announced a support package worth £63m in a one-year fund. £40 million of the fund will be made available for investment in decarbonization and long-term energy efficiency, while £23 million will help with costs to make these essential local facilities more energy efficient.

Like others, we celebrated this announcement, but it seems that the fund will only be available through Sport England and therefore does not include all of our partners.

Recently, I attended an event at the Scottish Parliament to support Scottish Swimming’s #SaveOurPools campaign and heard a number of inspiring speeches about the importance of learning to swim and the vital life skills it provides.

Together, we will continue to support them and our other nations in their quest for financial support. I urge you all to join me so that our collective voices can be heard on this vital issue.

#SaveOurPools #AchubEinPyllau

Robert

Dame Rosie Winterton MP visits former primary school to help promote water safety

MP for Doncaster Central Dame Rosie Winterton visited her former primary school, Park Primary School in Doncaster, to help highlight issues around water safety and promote water safety education.

Dame Rosie, along with Mary Hannan who is a RLSS UK lifeguard and lifesaver, spoke with children in year four to deliver a water safety lesson, in December.

During the visit, Dame Rosie spoke to pupils at Park Primary School about how they can stay safe and enjoy being in, on or around the water.

Dame Rosie said “It is always a pleasure to return to Park Primary School, where I was once a student, and on such an important occasion as well. Mary Hannan from the Royal Life Saving Society UK gave an engaging and informative lesson to the children, who took the lessons on in stride. We are all aware of the sad tragedy which took place in Solihull recently, and so I was very pleased to see that Doncaster children are being taught how to keep safe around the water. I know this lesson will have been so important to the children, especially in these wintry conditions where water can be even more dangerous.”

During the visit, pupils at the school were able to learn about water safety tips in the cold weather and take part in classroom based activities such as rope throwing and role plays.

All new ‘My RLSS UK’ area on the RLSS UK website!

We have made some improvements to the RLSS UK website menu structure that we hope will make it quicker and easier to find the pages you need.

The most impactful changes are a simplified menu bar on the homepage and new, dedicated ‘My RLSS UK’ area - for qualification or award holders, Trainers/Assessors, ATC/ ATPs, members, clubs, and branches.

The new area is accessible via the white ‘My RLSS UK’ button at the top of our website’s homepage. This area will now contain information on Accessing your RLSS UK Account, Accessing your Members Benefits, Guidance for Operators, Branches and Clubs, Support for ATCs/ATPs, Training Opportunities, Events including Honours and our AGM, Fundraising Community Support and RLSS UK Shop.