Schools 'paying double' to cover swimming lessons

A campaigner seeking to reopen a swimming pool has warned that a shortage of facilities is putting extra financial pressure on schools to pay for pupils to learn to swim.

Jeremy Thackray, who is behind a campaign to reopen Bingley Pool, said some schools in Bradford had reported their costs had "effectively doubled" because they now had to transport pupils to other pools or bring in temporary facilities.

His comments come as councillors prepare to examine provision across the district, with a cross-party scrutiny review looking at how schools are ensuring children learn to swim.

Thackray said there was "a real shortage of pool space" and the authorities must "act fast" to plug the gap.

The review of children's swimming facilities has been set up following concerns over how schools and academies are providing swimming lessons.

"We know that in Bingley there are 13 primary schools in the catchment area that would have been using Bingley Pool in the past and that can no longer do so," Thackray said.

"We've heard from some of them that their costs have effectively doubled for putting on swimming provision, just because of the cost of transport or the cost of having to get these pop-up pools in."

Bradford Council's Children's Scrutiny Committee ordered the review following concerns about swimming lessons, and after it heard many schools struggled with the cost of transport to get to pools.

The panel was told some schools relied on pop-up pools rather than traditional swimming baths.

It will examine whether schools are meeting Key Stage 2 curriculum requirements, including teaching children to perform safe self-rescue in different water-based situations.

It will also consider the suitability and cost of facilities, the wider community impact of swimming provision, and how the needs of children with additional needs and those in care are being met.

Councillors will hear from council officers, school heads and pool owners before presenting a report to the authority's leaders.

Thackray said some grants available to schools could not be used towards transport costs, making it harder to fund swimming lessons elsewhere.

"What looks like a saving on one part of a local authority's balance sheet actually comes in as a big cost either in another department or offloaded to someone else like a school," he said.

He stressed the district already faced a wider shortage of pool space.

"Bradford's own pool modelling reporting from 2020 said that even if it reopened Bingley Pool and did the Squire Lane facility, got that up and running, that would still leave the district a significant deficit," he said.

"So there's a real shortage of pool space in the district overall."

Plans to reopen Bingley Pool were scrapped under Bradford Council's former Labour leadership.

The Reform-led executive has also recently voted to abandon the proposed £32.9 million swimming pool and leisure centre at Squire Lane.

Thackray is urging the council to consider diverting some of the £20m of government funding initially meant for Squire Lane to reopen Bingley Pool and revive other swimming infrastructure.

He said older pools often occupied accessible town-centre sites.

"If you look at the site of Bingley Pool, right in the middle of the town, it is ideally accessible for public transport," he said.

"The key thing is to act fast so that they don't deteriorate too far."

The Bradford scrutiny review comes after some parents told the BBC more needs to be done to teach children to swim, as figures suggest the proportion who can is well below the national average.

All children in England should be able to swim 25m by the time they leave primary school, according to the national curriculum.

Research carried out by BBC News found, on average, 72% of Year 6 children were able to do that in 2024-25.

But in Bradford, the proportion was just 58%, with two schools in the district saying none of their Year 6 leavers could swim 25m.

Bradford Council has been approached for comment.

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