The Royal Foundation launch new swimming partnership to enable thousands of children and young people to benefit from swimming
By Jill Dando News
A new partnership spearheaded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales with a community swimming pool in Birtley, Tyne and Wear will support over 16,000 people, including 6,500 children and young people, to take part in swimming activities every month.
The partnership with Birtley Community Pool is providing funding to deliver much-needed swimming lessons and lifeguard training for the local community, enabling young people to learn and develop essential life-saving skills while shining a spotlight on the positive impact of accessible local swimming facilities on the lives of children and young people in the UK.
Although swimming is a vital life skill and the only sport that can save lives, almost one in three children in the UK currently leave primary education unable to swim (according to a report from Swim England in May 2021) .
Recently, The Royal Foundation brought together organisations from the swimming sector including Swim England to address key issues such as how to get more children swimming, breaking down the barriers to access and protecting pools and blue spaces.
For the last six months, The Royal Foundation has been working with Birtley Community Pool behind the scenes, utilising its convening power to connect new partners with the local community, helping to support their impressive efforts to get their local pool back up and running.
Through its Community Impact Programme, The Royal Foundation has:
- Provided funding to support the reopening and meet refurbishment costs at the pool.
- Helped local primary schools and young people to make use of the facilities, with a bursary for primary schools to subsidise the cost of swimming lessons for their pupils and scholarships for secondary school pupils to train as lifeguards.
- Supported a Community Outreach Officer role to be recruited who will maximise children’s participation, with a focus on children in years 2 and 3.
- Supported Birtley Community Pool’s Trustees to expand their network of supporters including leaders within the swimming sector and brands such as Swim England and Speedo, who subsequently made a charitable donation, providing swimming merchandise for young people using the pool.
Birtley Community Pool, which was formerly known as Birtley Swimming Centre, opened in 1974 but was closed by Gateshead Council in July 2023 due to increased energy and operational costs, which had led to a significant gap in funding.
Following the closure, local volunteers set up the charitable organisation, Birtley Community Aquatic Centre (BCAC), with the aim to reopen the pool as a not-for-profit venture.
The community came together to support efforts to reopen the pool, with local residents contributing to a crowdfunding campaign and local businesses and tradespeople contributing their time and resources pro bono to help to refurbish the facilities.
The community also secured funding from Sport England and the Community Ownership Fund and other charitable organisations.
The Royal Foundation’s partnership with Birtley Community Pool will continue as their community-led business enters its first year and beyond, helping to maximise its impact for the local community.
Additionally, The Royal Foundation is forming a partnership with three-time Olympic swimming champion Tom Dean MBE’s Swim School to provide 1,000 learn to swim packages to children from underserved backgrounds across the UK next year.
During his visit, His Royal Highness met with Trustees from the Birtley Community Aquatic Centre to hear about how the community came together to save the pool from permanent closure earlier this year and to hear about the long-term benefits the space is now creating for the wellbeing and community spirit of people in Birtley.
The Royal Foundation hosted a workshop at Birtley Community Pool convening groups from the swimming and sports sectors, including Swim England, of which The Prince is Patron, to discuss the different ways to increase swimming opportunities across the United Kingdom.
