New scheme launched to boost child water safety

The programme aims to teach children life-saving and self-rescue skills

A new programme has been launched to teach life-saving skills and water safety to children as winter approaches.

The Black Country Water Safety Programme hopes to help 4,000 young people at up to 80 schools across the Black Country, with the aim of reducing drowning fatalities.

It comes after a serious of water deaths in the West Midlands region over the summer.

The scheme launches in Wolverhampton on 24 September.

In July an eight-year-old boy died after he was pulled from the River Arrow in Alcester, Warwickshire, and a 16-year-old died in a Dudley reservoir on the same day.

A two-year-old boy died after being pulled from a canal, in Wolverhampton, on 20 August.

Last year 48% of primary school leavers – 7,884 children across the Black Country – were unable to demonstrate safe self-rescue in water, statistics gathered by Active Black Country have shown.

In Wolverhampton alone, 44% of Year 6 pupils could not perform safe self-rescue.

The programme, aimed at pupils in Years 5 and 6, will offer lessons in and out of the water in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton.

It will be run by Active Black Country, Swim England, the Royal Life Saving Society, the Canal & River Trust alongside Black Country local authorities.

Ian Carey, chief executive of Active Black Country, said: “Water safety has been brought into sharp focus following several tragic child drowning deaths in and close to the Black Country over the summer.

"Our programme aims to both help reduce child drowning fatalities and, crucially, ensure children are equipped with the vital lifesaving knowledge to allow them to be safe in and around water this autumn and in the cold winter months ahead."