Stronger aquatics industry critical to drowning prevention in Australia

Every year, Royal Life Saving Society Australia (RLSSA) releases its 'State of the Industry report' - a comprehensive assessment of safety standards in aquatic facilities across Australia.

The report benchmarks the performance against the industry standard – RLSSA's Guidelines for Safe Pool Operation (GSPO) and is based on Aquatic Facility Safety Assessments (AFSAs) which review seven areas: General Operations, Technical Operations, First Aid, Facility Design, Supervision, Low Patronage Pools, and Programs.

At the core of the State of the Industry's purpose is a stronger aquatics industry, and underpinning that is public safety.

RLSSA National Manager, Aquatic Industry Services Matthew Griffiths explains "a stronger aquatics industry is critical to drowning prevention in Australia.

"The benefit of having a report of this nature is that it shows us what we're doing well and it shows us where we can improve. Like the GSPO, it's written and presented in a way that will make a lot of sense to anyone working in aquatics."

This year's report found that aquatic facilities need to be more vigilant when it comes to improving public safety.

With five year's worth of figures (the State of the Industry first appeared in 2008), trends are now emerging. One of which is the difference between those facilities undergoing regular assessment and those that don't.

Griffiths explains "the facilities that choose to be assessed annually have an 18% higher safety compliance compared to those that don't.

"Yet more than half of all aquatic facilities have only ever had one assessment. This report clearly shows that we as an industry can do a whole lot better when it comes to taking the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the general public."

In-service training for staff including lifeguards is the area most likely to make a significant contribution to increasing compliance. That training needs to cover emergency procedures; initiatives; resuscitation; oxygen equipment; first aid and rescue skills.

Griffiths adds "in-service training is necessary for lifeguards to maintain existing skills, learn new skills, develop teamwork, and develop facility-specific knowledge. The more training our lifeguards have, the more confidence they will have when dealing with emergencies.

"If we want safer aquatic facilities then we need facilities to recognise where their strengths and weaknesses lie. Across the board, the best place to start is with equipping lifeguards with better skills."

Overall, the 2012 State of the Industry Report shows that the safety standards across the Australian aquatics industry have continued to improve. The 191 aquatic facilities that were assessed in 2012 had a mean compliance of 84.3%.

Much of the improvement in safety standards is attributed to an improved administration of aquatic facilities, specifically the increased use of operations manuals and emergency planning documentation. However, simple measures are forcing down the compliance.

Griffiths states "what is genuinely concerning is that facilities are being let down in areas where operators can affect simple change such as the maintenance of chemical manifests, signage and risk assessments."

The report also highlights the challenge of compliance in remote facilities. In 2012 Royal Life Saving identified that mean compliance for remote facilities was 14.7% below the five year average (83.2%) for all facilities at 68.5%.

According to Griffiths, "the compliance challenges - in-service training, chemical risk assessments and manifests, signage of chemicals and chemical storage areas and so on—are reflective of widespread concerns across the industry but are far more prevalent in remote areas."

Technical operations have also been highlighted as an area needing additional industry focus. The compliance in Technical Operations could easily improve yet has remained relatively consistent over the past five years having a mean compliance of 79.9% in 2012.

Griffiths concludes "technical operations are fundamental to aquatic facility operation and cover a broad area of responsibility. While we recognise that there are constraints in some areas, it could also be said that there are many areas within each facility that could be improved.

"In many cases it doesn't take much to increase compliance. At the end of the day it's all about making aquatic facilities safe for the public and one of the easiest ways to do that is through regular assessments."

To see the full State of the Industry Report 2012 click on the link below.

To contact Royal Life Saving across Australia call:

ACT - 02 6260 5800
NSW - 02 9634 3700
NT - 08 8981 5036
QLD - 07 3823 2823
SA - 08 8234 9244
TAS - 03 6243 7558
VIC - 03 9676 6900
WA - 08 9383 8200

For more information go to www.royallifesaving.com.au/

Images courtesy of Royal Life Saving.

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