Member's statement: Swimming Lessons
Member's statement by Ms Kate Nicholl on .
- MLA
- Ms Kate Nicholl
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 26 May 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Swimming Lessons
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5582336
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Not that long ago, a swim school in my constituency of South Belfast closed down overnight. I was surprised by the number of parents who were impacted on by the closure, and I have been working with them for the past couple of months to get compensation. One constituent who contacted me said that they could not really afford the swimming lessons as it was but recognised that swimming was a life skill for their child. They had been asked to pay cash upfront, but their being out of pocket meant that their child probably would not be able to go to swimming lessons, as they had really had to scrimp for to pay for it. That started me on a piece of work with Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL) on making swimming accessible for every child. We know that swimming is part of the Northern Ireland curriculum, but it is not mandatory, nor is it consistent in the way that it may be in other parts of the UK. There is no minimum standard. GLL told me that the number of children who can swim 25 metres unaided is declining. Right now, 30% of children leave year 7 unable to swim 25 metres. If that number continues to decline, we will reach a stage where we have a whole generation of adults who are unable to be safe in water. I am really passionate about it: swimming is an essential life skill not just for water safety but for its health benefits. We know what the cost of physical inactivity is to the economy. It is a no-brainer. We need to make sure that every child is able to swim. Another point made to me is that what happens is that children go swimming maybe for one term of the year. They will get the bus to the swimming lesson. Then they will stop going. It is not consistent. They would be better off going every day for one week, and they would be a much better swimmer. We can do a lot around policy work that is being done not just with the Education and Communities Departments but with Infrastructure. The key barrier to being able to swim is the cost of transport. Swimming lessons in themselves are a lot cheaper, so it is about access to the swimming lessons. There is a lot more that we can do. It is relatively cheap. Look at what is being done in Manchester: for very little money, they have been able to make a tangible difference. All of us in the Assembly can get behind this and make sure that every child who leaves primary school is able to swim 25 metres.
451 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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