麻豆社

Teaching your children to swim not only gives them a life saving skill; it鈥檚 also a healthy opportunity to spend time together as a family. Or so two families who got in contact with X-Ray recently thought.

Kathy Basher and her husband Tom from Three Crosses have four children. Kathy told us, 鈥淚t's so important, the water confidence that we've given them, it could save their lives.鈥�

Diana Cleave and her husband Nick from Swansea have three children. Diana says, 鈥淲e've got a four-year-old and a two-year-old and a three-month-old - there's very little that you can do as a family together.鈥�

Nick Cleave and his son in a pool

Until recently both families regularly used their council-owned swimming pool in Pontardawe. But one morning that all changed.

Nick Cleave told us, 鈥淚 took them [the children] at the end of January. I was told by the manager of our local pool, I'm sorry you can't take them in; they're not old enough basically.鈥�

And Tom Basher had a similar experience, 鈥淚 used to take the three eldest when Kathy was pregnant, and regularly go on a Sunday. We went up at the start of the half term holidays for a day swimming, and we were told that we can't take them in.鈥�

Pontardawe pool had to explain to both families that they were tightening up their safety procedures and from now on they will need one adult per child under the age of five when swimming.

It鈥檚 meant big changes for the Cleaves, as Nick explains, 鈥淚t's become a bit of a chore to be honest. I take my oldest child in the water for 20 minutes then I pass child A over, and take child B, while Diana goes off and showers child A with the other child she's got with her, while I swim for another 20 minutes. Then I pass child B over for child C and the situation is reversed.鈥�

But the Bashers have stopped going completely, 鈥淪ince we were told we couldn't go in, we haven't been back, because Evie got so upset by not being able to swim with her sisters, it was just pointless really.鈥�

People who manage pools are expected to follow guidelines set by the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management. We spoke with Peter Mills from consultancy company QLM, who work with swimming pools across the country to implement the guidelines.

Peter told us, 鈥淔ollowing around 15 drownings a year听of children in public swimming pools, there needed to be a policy in place to ensure that under eight-year-olds were accompanied in the water by a responsible person aged over 16.鈥�

But this X-Ray investigation has discovered parents could find quite different regulations depending on where their swimming pool is. For example, in Conwy, an adult can only take one child under three into the pool. In Wrexham it's one child under four. And in Newport it's one adult to each child under five. But a few miles away in Caerphilly one adult can supervise two children under five.

鈥淚 think as parents, we are responsible for the safety of our children. And we can make a judgement on what is safe, and of course the safety of my children is paramount to me.鈥� Diana told us.

Peter Mills says it is possible for swimming pools to be flexible while keeping guests safe, 鈥淚f it's a standard 25 metre tank, where children can be put in armbands and they are under control of parents, then there's room to be flexible in the ratio. The key thing is not to look at the ratios in isolation, but to look at all the opportunities to make it easier for people to come in.鈥�

Celtic Leisure runs Pontardawe pool on behalf of Neath Port Talbot Council. They told us the admission policy isn't new, but it wasn't applied consistently in the past, and the layout of the pool creates some "unique challenges". But they take health and safety very seriously and since we got in touch they'll now look introducing ways to help families swim together.