Child pool admissions policies
If you have two or more children and want to take them swimming you need to check your pool’s admission policy in terms of how many children they state can be supervised by one adult.
Different pools may have different policies. This is because pools can be different. For example one pool may have water that is slightly deeper in the shallow end, or there are blind spots where the lifeguards cannot see all the bathers all the time.
Each pool will want your child to be as safe as they can be when going swimming so will look at its own circumstances and undertake an assessment of the risks on site. The admission policy will take into account this assessment.
The Institute of Sport & Recreation Management (the leading national professional body for sport and recreational management in this country) also states provided the children are in a non-swimmer area of reasonably shallow water and can swim, or are wearing approved armbands, it is likely that one adult can safely look after either two children (where one or more is under the age of three) or three children (where aged four to seven-years-old).
If you have any concerns about your local pool and its child admissions policy, then please read through our list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
Simply click on the relevant link to access the page with the answer. If you can’t find the information you are looking for then please contact us by clicking here.
FAQ's
• I have just been turned away from my local pool for turning up with too many children. Why is this?
• I’m told there is new guidance on children swimming. What is it?
• Why is this guidance needed? I have never heard of children drowning in a public pool.
• Why do we need to adopt this guidance given there are lifeguards on duty? Surely this is their job?
• Who is the ISRM and what is the status of its guidance?
• Why has my pool just changed its policy so that I can no longer take my two children swimming?
• The pool down the road has a different policy. How can this be right?
• How many children can I take to the pool?
• What has age got to do with it?
• I am a lone parent of three small children. How can I take them swimming in line with pool policy?
• How do I know how many children of what age I can take swimming if pools have different policies?
• Why is this decision being made by someone who doesn't know my children or their swimming ability?
• My children swim really well. Surely they can be treated differently from those who can’t swim?
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