Drowning Prevention Week - Keeping Foster Children Safe Around Water

Drowning Prevention Week is the Royal Life Saving Society’s biggest campaign and runs every summer ahead of the long school holidays.

 

Drowning Prevention Week 2025 will be taking place between the 15th and 22nd of June and aims to educate children and their families, carers, and teachers about water safety.

 

In today’s blog, we’re taking a look at why Drowning Prevention Week is so important, and sharing tips for foster carers on how to keep children safe around water.

Why Do We Need Drowning Prevention Week?

Sadly, hundreds of people in the UK die from accidental drowning each year, and many of these are children.

 

Figures show that in England alone, 41 children died as a result of drowning in the year 2022-2023, which is more than double the number of deaths that occurred in 2019-2020.

 

Drowning Prevention Week helps to increase public awareness of the risk of drowning for all age groups but specifically targets those who live or work with children to try and reduce the number of child fatalities from drowning.

Children More at Risk of Drowning

Anyone can drown. Even fit, healthy adults who are confident in the water, can become victims of accidental drowning. However, some groups are more at risk than others.

 

Recent data from the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD) has revealed that children from minority ethnic groups, and children living in deprived areas are at an increased risk of drowning.

 

Children coming into foster care do so from a wide range of backgrounds, but many will have experienced disruption to their education, and as such, may have missed out on opportunities to learn about keeping themselves safe around water.

 

If children have missed out on school swimming lessons, or curriculum-based water safety sessions, such as assemblies or classroom learning, they may not know how to stay safe around water or have the skills needed to stay afloat or self-rescue if they find themselves in the water unexpectedly.

 

Additionally, areas of deprivation have higher rates of Looked After Children, meaning many foster children may be at higher risk of drowning, without being aware of it.

Keeping Children Safe Around Water

Fortunately, as a foster carer, there’s a lot you can do to help keep foster children safe around water both inside and outside of the home.

Water Safety at Home

When we think of drowning, we might assume it only happens outdoors, but sadly, many children drown at home. Drownings in the home usually involve babies or toddlers and typically happen in the bath, or a garden pond.

 

To help keep young children safe, you should always:

 

• Keep babies and young children within arm’s reach when in or near water.

• Don’t leave the room when filling a bath or bathing young children - even if they seem secure in a bath seat. Drownings can happen in seconds, even in very shallow water, so don’t be tempted to nip out for a towel or to answer the door, for example.

• Fill in or fence off garden ponds. Be aware of any ponds, pools, or hot tubs in neighbouring properties that your child might be able to get to when your back is turned.

• Closely supervise children when playing in paddling pools and empty pools immediately after use.

Teach the Water Safety Code

Children are naturally drawn to water, whether it’s a bubble bath, a garden pond, a swimming pool, or the sea. Water can be fun, and we don’t want children to be scared of it, but they do need to know the Water Safety Code.

 

The Water Safety Code is:

 

• Stop and Think - before entering water, children need to read any signs, and find out how deep the water is and if there are any hazards beneath the surface.

• Stay Together - children shouldn’t swim alone. They should always be supervised by a responsible adult.

• Call 999 - If someone gets into trouble in the water, children should be taught to call for help and ring 999 rather than enter the water themselves.

• Float - children should be taught to Float to Live. Knowing how to keep themselves afloat can make all the difference if they get into trouble in the water or fall in unexpectedly.

 

Teach Children to Swim

One way in which foster carers can help is to take foster children swimming. This can be done at any age and is an ideal opportunity for children to practice their water safety skills.

 

Around half of all drownings happen to people who never intended to be in the water in the first place, so it isn’t enough for non-swimmers to simply avoid water.

 

Whether you sign children up for lessons or take them for a splash about at your local pool at the weekend, getting them comfortable in and around water is key to improving their confidence and reducing their risk of drowning.

Choose Swimwear and Accessories Wisely

If a child gets into difficulty in the water, you want to be able to spot them immediately, but this can be tricky in a busy pool or on a crowded beach, and even more so if they’re wearing swimming clothes that blend in with the water!

 

Swimwear in shades of blue, green, white, grey, and even black can be very difficult to spot under the water, as demonstrated by this series of photoshoots that show different colours of swimwear in different water conditions, such as a white-bottomed pool or a lake.

 

Instead, Swim England recommends bright swimwear, such as:

 

• Neon Orange

• Neon Pink

• Neon Yellow

• Neon Green

 

Many parents and carers buy children floating aids such as armbands, foam discs, swimming noodles/woggles, and inflatables like rubber rings and lilos to help them enjoy their time in the water.

 

While these can be fun in a pool, non-swimmers shouldn’t be encouraged to go out of their depth when wearing floating aids, and inflatables should never be used in the sea. Blow-up toys and beds can very easily be carried out to sea in even a light coastal breeze, leading to children quickly becoming out of their depth, and needing to be rescued.

Share Your Knowledge

The Royal Life Saving Society (RLSS) has a wide range of resources available for parents, carers, and families to find out more about water safety, including printable resources and videos to watch and share with children.

 

These are a great source of information if you’re planning to have a water safety conversation at home ahead of a summer holiday, or if you want to raise awareness in your community during Drowning Prevention Week.

Olive Branch Fostering - Supporting Carers to Keep Children Safe

At Olive Branch Fostering, we understand the importance of water safety and the need to raise awareness of the potential dangers through campaigns such as Drowning Prevention Week. We want all of our children and families to stay well this summer, and to enjoy their time around the water safely.

 

Olive Branch considers training and development to be a vital part of a foster carer’s role, and in addition to mandatory training, we offer a range of learning opportunities to our carers to ensure they’re providing the best possible care to children. This includes expert-led courses in first aid, and health and safety.

 

To find out more about fostering with Olive Branch, and how we support our carers, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can also call us on 01706 558910 or book a call back with one of our friendly fostering advisors.