MINISTER OPENS POWER OF SWIMMING EVENT
Public Health Minister Caroline Flint underlined swimming's
important part in achieving the Government's health agenda
when she spoke at the ASA's Power of Swimming Conference today.
"Swimming is an obvious opportunity to hit health targets
in a safe and easy environment," she said. "It appeals
to young and old alike with one in three people taking part
at least once a year.
"Swimming saves lives, can boost confidence and offers
gateways to other sports. It is the most popular participation
sport, but we need to discover the reasons for non-participation
amongst certain groups."
"Centres need to start engaging with the community to
ensure they are delivering for their needs. We have to focus
on different groups, listen to what makes a difference for
them and look at how existing facilities can be improved and
optimised to benefit communities."
Flint was keen to reiterate the importance of working with
communities to increase activity and improve health.
"We are pushing on an open door and can't ignore the
barriers that affect participation. There needs to be constant
re-engagement with communities.
"Health inequalities are one of the top priorities for
the NHS and we can clearly identify factors for poor health
amongst certain groups. Primary Care Trusts must meet targets
on health inequality and sport can provided the tools they
need to reach those."
Attended by more than 100 leisure industry professionals,
the inaugural Power of Swimming conference tackled a variety
of issues around maximising pool use and increasing participation
in local communities and across hard to reach groups.
Speakers, including ASA Chief Executive David Sparkes, Sport
England Director of Sport Stephen Baddeley and Welsh Assembly
Government Head of Sport Policy Sara Butlin, spoke from experience
and provided best practice examples.
Sparkes underlined the importance of swimming in building
a healthier nation and called for the leisure industry to
take a more customer-focussed approach to engage more users
to their pools.
"Attendance at public pools is dropping by one to two
percent each year," he revealed. "Although casual
swimming is increasing, regular swimming is decreasing, yet
many inactive people express an interest in participating.
"Through pilot programmes and research, the ASA has
identified new markets that public pools have yet to provide
for. The challenge is for the Government to enable Local Authorities
to invest in a strategic way to meet the needs of these markets
within their communities.
"It is crucial the Government faces up to the challenges
in swimming to move the activity agenda along. First, we need
good facilities, but just as important is how those facilities
are managed. We must address what the customers need and for
that there needs to be a culture change and new levels of
customer intimacy."
Also today, ASA Swimming Activity Manager Kate Sargant unveiled
a new website to provide support for local authorities and
leisure providers.
www.freeswimming.org is a comprehensive toolkit for anyone
considering a free swimming initiative. Providing a 'warts
and all' account of the benefits and pitfalls of such schemes
and including case studies and an interactive peer support
section, this new site is a must for anyone interested in
free swimming.
"There are many barriers to swimming which stop different
people taking part" admitted Sargant. "We have to
make swimming something people want to do and the ASA is working
with partners to help this happen.
"As part of our commitment we have developed a free
swimming website with the Department of Health and others
to provide support based on real life experience for anyone
thinking about carrying out any free swimming initiative to
engage their community."
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