A new STA approved Autism Swim qualification has just become available in the UK (created in Australia) and we have trained up a local swim instructor and want to start running sessions after easter for children with Autism. As part of the qualification you cannot have more than a 1:3 ratio and it also includes creating water safety documents for parents to use for local attractions where there are water hazards to highlight potential dangers outside of the pool environment.

In the UK one of the highest death rates in under 14s with Autism is drowning, this is especially seen in girls. As swimming is part of the curriculum we believe that water safety should be an essential life skills for everyone. When looking into local swim sessions we found that everyone said they were inclusive and so felt they were Autism friendly but when we surveyed young people with Autism the results showed that most could not attend swim sessions due to the noise levels & class number

We hope to achieve water safety awareness for both participants and parents and work together to lower drowning rates in the UK. We hope that by proving that these new sessions work to roll it out through the county and approach other councils to replicate our model.