By Pressure Group Chairperson Carolyn Warner

When Carolyn Warner was prevented from taking her children swimming by an officious employee, she took matters into her own hands. As founder of The Right To Swim campaign she succeeded in bringing Tony Blair's attention to the health and safety guideline that's causing so much trouble for parents.

My sister and I started the Right To Swim pressure group when we were turned away from my local public swimming pool in March last year.

As a family we’ve always been into swimming. My sister and I have gone swimming together, Kate with her two boys (aged three and five) and me with my two (aged six and two) since the children were babies and never experienced any problems.

Then one day we turned up at the swimming pool with kit bags and inflatables in tow and were told that we could not be admitted as we needed two more adults with us to take them swimming. The receptionist pointed to a piece of paper that was sellotaped to the desk with a new guideline on it. She was not at all apologetic.

I had never heard of the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management, but it turns out that they had a 12-year-old guideline which stated that children under the age of four should be accompanied by a responsible person on a one-to-one basis. Children aged between four to seven should be accompanied by a responsible person on a two-to-one basis. I have no doubt that the guideline was created with safety in mind but the reality is that it excludes any parent with more than one child, if those children are under four. Every parent who goes swimming knows it is inherently dangerous and carries out their own risk assessment before they enter the pool. Many activities have an element of risk and it is about how we as the parents manage that risk.

Getting Started
When we started Right To Swim we discovered a similar pressure group in Scotland and yet more in Ireland and eventually came together to be more focused. I then became the Chairperson and collared friends and family to help with websites and publicity.

I am thrilled that this campaign is getting so much attention but not surprised. Swimming is an inexpensive, fun and social activity that most families take part in or used to. Take away swimming in the 'safest place to swim' (government quote) and we have a nation of non-swimmers who would be in danger just going to the beach or near any of our many rivers and canals.

Meeting Mr Blair
I was offered the chance to met Mr Blair on his recent visit to Kent. My question to him was, 'Given that childhood obesity is at an all time high, what does your government intend to do to promote children to be more active? And how do you propose to accommodate this, given that public pools are banning children?' Mr Blair was shocked and said that it was ‘crazy’. I told him that no under four-year-old had drowned in public pools in the last five years. He said that it was more about the litigation culture and told me he would try and do something about it.
(NB: The Prime Minister spoke about this issue in a Commons debate on 26 January 2005 branding the guidelines ‘complete nonsense’ and telling MPs: ‘I think parents are perfectly well able to judge how they must best look after their children.’)

Things have improved slightly…
We are able to swim in my area again but only during ‘special sessions’ which aren’t particularly special for us parents. They have scheduled toddler sessions from 9-10 am and 2-4 pm which are timed to clash with the school run. They also have sectioned off the pool which means that my eldest son who is six has to stand in waist-height water. Not the best depth for swimming in!

What can other parents do to get involved?
I would ask other parents to check out our website at www.righttoswim.co.uk and sign our online petition which is being delivered to Mr Blair. They should also contact their local MP and get them to sign a petition which is in parliament called an EDM (no. 53). Parents can contact us and review their nearest accessible pool or find out which pools they can swim at in their local area on our accessible pools page.

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