Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether an assessment has been made of the sufficiency of funding for the primary school swimming programme in all parts of the UK; what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of training of the staff on that programme and whether teachers have professional expertise regularly updated; and if he will ensure that the swimming programme is offered by all primary schools to all children.

Swimming and water safety are compulsory elements of the physical education (PE) curriculum at key stages 1 and 2. The department is responsible for the PE curriculum and the PE and Sport Premium in England. Responsibility for the curriculums of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales lie with each devolved administration.

The government’s sports strategy, ‘Sporting Future’, published in December 2015, included a commitment to establish a working group “to advise on how to ensure no child leaves school unable to meet a minimum standard of capability and confidence in swimming”. In response, the Swim Group has published an independent report, which reviewed current practice and provision and set out a number of recommendations.

The government has formed an implementation group to review the recommendations. The group will work to increase the opportunities for all children to swim and achieve the national curriculum requirements.

The government has doubled the primary PE and Sport Premium to £320 million a year from September 2017. Updated guidance was published in October 2017 stating that the premium can be used to “provide additional swimming provision targeted to pupils not able to meet the swimming requirements of the national curriculum”. The guidance also indicates the premium can be used to provide staff with professional development, mentoring, training and resources to help them teach PE and sport more effectively.

For the 2017 to 2018 academic year, schools must publish how many pupils within their year 6 cohort are meeting the national curriculum requirement to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres, use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations. This is a new condition placed upon use of the premium.