Swimming

At a glance

The number of people regularly swimming has declined since our Active Lives Adult Survey began, but the sport still remains one of the staple physical activities within England.

Our latest figures show that 4.7 million people swim twice or more a month, making it one of the most popular physical activities in the country.

In order to maintain the numbers of people regularly swimming, and to grow its popularity, we ran a series of pilots in 12 locations around the country.

Here we outline some of what's worked, what hasn't, and present what we know about how to encourage people to swim regularly.

An advert for community swimming pool, on the side of a bus

Our strategy - Towards an Active Nation

Part of our commitment with our 2017-2021 strategy was to get more people from every background regularly and meaningfully engaging in sport and physical activity.

This meant appealing to those who weren't being reached, and encouraging those who were once active but had moved away from activity, while not neglecting those who had been and remained active.

Those principles all apply to swimming, which has seen a decline in numbers in recent years.

Our strategy said we would work with partners to help the sector become more productive and sustainable - a promise that has been born out by our work with the swim pilots, and seen results that can be applied across the nation to help increase participation in swimming.

Learn more about our Towards an Active Nation strategy

Research

Active Lives Adult Survey

Published twice a year, our Active Lives Adult Survey measures the activity levels of people across England.

According to the report published in October 2019, which covers the 12 months from May 2018-19, swimming participation increased compared to the previous 12 months.

However, this still meant that levels of participation were down from our first Active Lives Adult Survey results.

In March 2017 we published data for November 2015-16 which showed 4.9 million people swam twice in the preceding 28 days.

But figures for May 2017/18 saw that figure drop to 4.5m, meaning an increase to 4.7m for May 2018/19 was still an overall decrease of 200,000 from the initial figures.

To further explore the Active Lives Adult Survey data, which include local-level breakdowns of participation levels, visit the Active Lives page.

Active Lives survey

A boy plays on an inflatable obstacle course in a swimming pool

Swim pilots

We've invested in a number of swim pilots with the aim of trying out new approaches to encouraging more people to get into the water.

The pilots, in 12 locations around the country, were dared to take risks and broaden from the traditional offer of lane swimming in order to boost interest.

A variety of approaches were taken, with our report detailing the full results - including case studies and advice for the future.

The various different types of pilots were as follows:

Swim local

Rolling out small-scale changes to make the pool itself more appealing to local communities and to improve the customer experience.

This Girls Can Swim

Designed to attract more females to the pool.

Disability swim

Designed to attract more disabled people to the pool.

Adult learn to swim

Encouraging adult non-swimmers into the pool.

Rule the pool

Testing the potential to engage swimmers with 'gamification' technology and mass participation events.

What works

The work done with our swim pilots showed that no one thing works in terms of boosting participation levels.

However, it did produce 10 guiding principles that should help leisure providers transform the swimming experience for their users.

1. Community insight

It's essential to start a swimming transformation by speaking to the local community and assessing its needs. This can help to identify specific target audiences that could be encouraged to be more active at the pool.

2. No one thing

There is no silver bullet that can transform participation. A package of complementary interventions are necessary.

3. Bespoke solutions

The package of interventions required will need to be different for each pool.

4. Training and recruitment

It's essential to invest in recruitment and training to support staff in developing the capacity, attitude and skills needed to increase the number of people swimming.

5. Shared vision

A strong evidence base is key to developing a clear vision of success that staff, senior management and local influencers are happy to champion - even if it's controversial at first.

6. Customer data

Good customer data collection and analysis is essential for tracking whether participation is increasing among target audiences.

7. Culture change

Transforming swimming provision requires culture change, which needs to happen within owner and provider organisations, and in the leisure centre, just as much as it does in the local community.

8. Timescales

Unexpected delays need to be accounted for, as well as the time it takes to remove barriers to participation - especially when recruitment, new technology and procurement are involved.

9. Communication

Ongoing internal and external communication is essential.

10. Time

There's no quick fix to transform swimming provision - it will take time.

Tools and resources

Swim pilots

This comprehensive, interactive, report brings together all the research and learning we've found about how local authorities, leisure providers and facility managers can work together with their communities to transform swimming.

The full interactive resource - which includes links to the 'Learning Locker' suite of resources - is available to download below, as well as a four-page summary document.

The full report is best opened in a dedicated PDF viewer, as some browsers may limit its interactivity.

If you have any queries or questions about the swim pilot resources, please email research@sportengland.org.

To further explain the learnings from our swim pilots, our executive director for insight Lisa O'Keefe hosted a webinar.

We also heard from representatives of The Smarter Choice Consultancy - who helped throughout the pilot - as well as Coventry City Council and CV Life, who talked about how they've encouraged more people from local communities to use, and keep using, their pools.

One of our pilots was in Luton, and their short 'Your Pool' video gives an insight into some of the things they've been working on in their pools to increase the number of people swimming.

At a glance

Our strategy - Towards an Active Nation

Research

Active Lives Adult Survey

Swim pilots

Swim local

This Girls Can Swim

Disability swim

Adult learn to swim

Rule the pool

What works

1. Community insight

2. No one thing

3. Bespoke solutions

4. Training and recruitment

5. Shared vision

6. Customer data

7. Culture change

8. Timescales

9. Communication

10. Time

Tools and resources

Swim pilots

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