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Insight Report #6 (May 2013)
The Informatics Team
1. Contents
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Welcome (p.1)
How to use the Insight Report (p.1)
What is available from past research? (P.2)
Persona Update (p.4)
The swimming habits of the general public (p.5)
March National Data Collection: The impact of ethnicity and
religion on swimming (p.6)
8. Swim 4 Health (p.9)
9. Active Workplaces (p.13)
10. School Swimming (p.14)
11. Swimfit (p.16)
12. Interesting articles (p.18)
13. What’s on its way? (p.19)
2. Welcome
Welcome to the sixth edition of the ASA Insight report produced by the ASA Informatics
Team. This report summarises information collected and analysed between 1st March 2013
to 15th May 2013. The findings discussed are of a national level, as opposed to localised or
site specific information.
If you find that this report highlights a local need for research, please contact
sarah.melville@swimming.org or your Aquatic Officer to discuss the potential for the ASA
Informatics Team to conduct research that is specific to a local area, or facility.
3. How to use the Insight Report
The way you use this report will vary between person to person. It will depend on your job
role, your current area of focus, and the clients you are visiting over the coming month.
Informatics do not expect anyone to read through the report and make notes! But, you may
find that there are snippets of information that you can use to:
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Review current programmes / timetables
Make evidence based decisions
Identify localised research needs
This report summarises the information covered in several other full reports. These reports
are accessible upon request to sarah.melville@swimming.org
The report will make reference to ‘Personas’. These are the ASA’s Swimming specific
market segments. The personas are based on an individual’s aquatic motivations, barriers
and ability, as opposed to age and gender. By utilising the ASA Personas, an operator will
be able to better understand their consumer and make site specific decisions that will suit
the most number of customers.
Please refer to the Persona section of this report for further information on how to access
and utilise the ASA Personas
4. What existing research is
available?
Since the ASA Informatics Team was created in November 2011, an abundance of insightful
reports have been put together to support the swimming industry. These reports (some of
which are mentioned below) are available upon request.
Net Promoter Scores
Would the public recommend swimming over other sports?
The perspective of parents who chose not to send their children to learn to swim
schemes
Reasons behind declined lessons
Lesson preferences
Perceived importance of swimming lessons
Perceived importance of school swimming
Perceived importance of family swimming
Suggestions of how to react to findings
The perspective of parents who send their children to learn to swim schemes
Lesson and badge preferences
Perceived importance of swimming lessons
Perceived importance of school swimming
Perceived importance of family swimming
Suggestions of how to react to findings
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Operator feedback regarding to Learn to Swim programmes
Costs
Delivery
Retention
Quality
Knowledge Management
Social Network Analysis
Identification of how knowledge can be better shared internally
Marketing Preferences
Consumer perspectives
Offers of interest
The perspective of adult non or weak swimmers
Swimming and non swimming preferences
Physical activity motivations and barriers
Olympic legacy perspectives
Marketing preferences
‘Be a Better Swimmer’ findings
Learning for Glasgow 2014
Volunteer preferences, motives and barriers
Methods for impacting participation rates through mega events
Event presentation
Waterbabies: The perspective of families with (or planning for) young families
Motives for young learning
Barriers to young learning
Preferences regarding lessons
ASA/BS National and International event evaluation
Variety of ages
Disability events including
Across all aquatic disciplines
Includes a fan typography
Summaries of external reports including:
Taking Part Survey analysis
The economy of swimming
Sport and Recreation Alliance Olympic & Paralympic Games Legacy Survey
Sport and Recreation Alliance Survey of Sport Clubs 2011
BUCS events and participation
Free Swimming campaign evaluation
Heroes Tour evaluation
English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
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5. Persona Update
The second draft of the ASA personas is nearly complete and will hopefully be launched at
the PPP launch. We have 22 personas in total, each varying in terms of age, gender,
ethnicity, disability status, socio-economic status, motives, barriers, swim ability, swim
frequency, swim activity and marketing preferences:
Persona type
Committed
Challenge Seeker
Dad's Dunk
Disability Dip
Doctor dip
Family splash
Holiday Chill
Holiday Hydro
Learn to Swim
Parent
Mature and active
Me time
Mini Torpedo
On a Budget
Swimmer
Out of Hours
Swimmer
Post Gym Water
Workout
Motivational message 1
You love swimming so why not try and push yourself further by signing up
to a challenge? Either for charity or for yourself?
Swimming is a great way to keep fit as well as the perfect activity to take
your kids along to
No matter what disability you have swimming is inclusive for all.
Swimmingis great for your fitness and health, improves your general
wellbeing and is a great way to socialise
Swimming is a non weight bearing exercise which can be taken at your own
pace. Take the plunge today towards a healthier lifestyle
Get down to your local pool and jump in the pool with the whole family. It's a
great way to spend quality time with your family in an enviroment where
your children are learning a valuable life skill
Recreate that holiday feeling by the pool and take a keisurely swim at your
local pool
Recreate that holiday feeling and take your family along for a dip at the local
pool
Your child is learning to swim which is a valuable life skill, why not join them
in the pool and take the whole family along
Swimming in your later years is a great way to keep you young and active
Take a dip and unwind in the pool, you will feel relaxed and energised
afterwards
With your strong swimming ability and your love for water why not sign up to
a swimming club and take your friends with you too!
Swimming doesn't have to be expensive- look out for deals and discounted
offers at yuor local pool
Let swimming fit in and aroundf your lifestyle, keep an eye on your local
pool timetable for the sessions that appeal to you most
Swimming is an excellent way to warm up or cool down from an activity,
toning and building muscle can be complimented with a swim alongside
your gym regime
Shy Wader
Don't worry you aren't the only one that is unsure about taking the plunge.
Look at the pool timetable- there will be a session on there for you attended
by like minded people with the same concerns about swimming as you
Social Butterfly
Swimming is agreat way to socilaise with friends. Encourage a group of
mates down to the pool today for a sociable dip
Student Splash
Take a break from studying and get down to the pool for a dip with freinds
Take some time out of from your hectic schedule and go for a swim to
reenergise and reinvigorate you
Supermum
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Stigma Swim
Swimming off
sins
Swimming's for
School Only
Worn Out
Working Rush
Help dispell the myths about swimming and forget previous bad experiences. You
can find something to do in the pool that appeals to you- just talk to staff at your
local pool and tell them what you are looking for, they are there to help!
Swimming is a great all over body work out that is one of the best ways to lose
weight
Think of how much you enjoyed swimming at school and rekindle those happy
memories by picking swimming back up. It is important to maintain your
swimming ability as it is a valuable lifeskill to possess
Swimming doesn't have to be time consuming. Try a swim before work to kick
start your mornings and feel energised and motivated at work
It is important to remember that the personas do overlap, and therefore it is possible for an
individual to fit within 3 or 4 personas, depending on their mood. This is exactly why we refer
to the guides as ‘personas’, rather than ‘segments’. A segment would dictate that if you are
of x gender and x age, then you must do x swimming. A persona, however, is more fluid and
able to be specific enough to know exactly how to tailor a swimming opportunity to suit an
individual.
The next step for the persona project is mapping. We are embarking on a large scale survey
to accurately determine where our personas can be found (i.e. we would be able to drill
down to a local town and know what % of the habitants there are ‘supermums’).
In the mean time we are still able to provide leisure operators with the tools they need to
better understand their local aquatic consumer by following the steps in the following prezi:
http://prezi.com/rdbw4568tfd7/personas-tell-me-more/?kw=view-rdbw4568tfd7&rc=ref9875663
6. The swimming habits of the
general public
Since May 2012, the ASA Informatics team have collected the opinions of more than 5,000
members of the public. These opinions (when correlated with the data achieved through
Sport England’s Active People Survey and the Taking Part Survey) have contributed the
forming of the ASA personas, and also supported the governing body to make evidence
based decisions that reflect the preferences of the general public.
The data we have collected has enabled us to determine that (Based on 2,556 responses)
the 31% of the general public swim once a week or more. 51% swim rarely. The remainder
swim occasionally or sporadically (i.e. less than once a week, but more than twice a year).
Our survey data has allowed us to delve a little deeper to determine the swimming ability of
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the general public. Based on 2,634 respondents, 10% of the general public are nervous
swimmers. 12% are improving swimmers who can swim up to 25m in one go, but no more.
33% are general swimmers (can swim between 25-200m in one go, but no more). 35% of
the general public are strong swimmers who can comfortably swim more than 200m in one
go. The remaining 10% are dedicated, regular swimmers (40% of which compete).
7. March National Data Collection:
The impact of ethnicity and
religion on swimming
In March 2013, the ASA’s team of National Data Administrators collected the opinions of
members of the public (swimmers and non swimmers) who were of non-British White
heritage. The ASA (in conjunction with Sporting Equals) were interested to learn the impact
that ethnicity and religion has on swimming behaviour.
312 opinions were collected, from a sample that included all age groups, both genders and
all employment types. There were a variety of ethnicities amongst respondents. Asian/ Asian
British were of the highest responses, along with Caribbean. Just over one third of the
respondents considered themselves to be a Muslim, with just under one third being
Christian. Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, and Sikh members of the public also answered the
questionnaire. 17% of respondents were not religious.
When asked what defines them more as a person, 20% of respondents ticked ethnicity, 49%
ticked religion and the remaining 31% replied that neither of these are important to them.
Religion is of more importance to respondents with an Asian ethnicity, than to those with a
Black/Caribbean/African ethnicity. In particular, Muslim and Hindu religions appear to have a
greater bearing on defining individuality than other religions.
The geographic spread of respondents is all across England. 10% of the respondents live on
a street in which the majority of residents are of a similar ethnicity or religion to them. 15%
live on a street in which they are the only house of their particular ethnicity or religion. Most
respondents live on a multi-ethnic or multi-faith street. 80% of respondents know where their
nearest swimming pool is.
When asked whether they would recommend a particular sport / activity to a friend, there
were no sports that the respondents were willing to strongly recommend. The most likely
activity that the respondents would be interested in were gym and fitness classes, followed
closely by swimming. Team sports proved far less popular.
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85% of questionnaire respondents could name a famous aquatic celebrity, suggesting that
although the majority of British Swimming stars are not from a non-British White background,
their achievements were still noted by members of the public from a BME background.
With regards to swimming ability, 39% of respondents defined themselves as nervous,
fearful, or weak swimmers. This is far higher than the general public statistics discussed in
the previous section of the Insight Report (10%). This % increased to over 42% amongst the
Asian Muslim and Asian Hindu respondents.
22% of respondents classed themselves as improving swimmers, able to swim 25m in one
go, but no further. Once again, this % is higher than the ‘overall’ picture for England of 12%.
The most common ability is being able to swim 25m – 200m (1-8 lengths) without stopping
(28%) which is slightly lower than the ‘overall England’ response of 33%. Not many of the
respondents are dedicated training swimmers (2%), or competitive swimmers (1%).
The data also informs us that society members of a BME heritage swim less frequently that
the English population as a whole (28% BME swimmers swim once or more times a week
compared with 31% for the overall population). The general public tell the ASA that 51% of
them swim rarely. When we explore the responses of BME respondents, this % jumps to
63%. Almost two thirds of English citizens, not from a British White background, rarely swim.
In this regard, the data tells us that a member of public from a BME background is less likely
to be a strong, regular swimmer and more likely to be a weak and nervous swimmer who
rarely takes the plunge.
Respondents were asked if they were to go swimming, who they would most like to go with.
Family members was the most popular answer (41% of responses chose this answer),
followed by friends (38%). Attending the pool with friends or family was perceived as a good
way to remain confident in the water, and spend fun, quality time with individuals important
to them. 34% of respondents told the ASA that they would be happy to go swimming alone in
order to relax, or focus on their own training. This latter group also preferred not to have to
rely on others to go swimming. Only 13% of respondents stated that they would opt to go
swimming with a local community or faith group, but for those that would, they would like the
opportunity for gender specific sessions and ways to socialise and gain confidence in the
water with others.
Motivations to swim for the questionnaire respondents reflected the preferences of the
general population:
to get and keep fit (40%)
to socialise (12%)
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to spend time with the family (10%)
to have fun (8%)
The ASA asked the 83% of respondents that swam fortnightly or more often, what prevented
them from joining a club – they listed reasons such as:
Not knowing where the local club trains (33%)
Not being able to access training at convenient times (32%)
Cost (29%)
Facilities not being culturally sensitive to the needs of the person (16%)
The club being too ‘serious’ (14%)
A number of females also commented that clubs would need to be ladies only, for them to be
able to join, and their local area does not provide these. When filtered by Asian ethnicities,
cost was a bigger barrier to joining a club (40%).
20% of respondents have never been taught how to swim. For the other 80% of respondents
that have experienced swimming teaching, this was taught mostly at the ages of 4-11 years
old (51%) by school swimming teachers (31%) and family members (26%). 14% of
respondents were self-taught. 9% were part of a Learn to Swim scheme outside of school
swimming lessons. This highlights that for the majority of BME respondents in this survey,
access to school swimming lessons was essential to their ability to swim and remain safe
near the water. This trend continues through the children of the respondents. For the
respondents who had children aged between 3-16 years old, amazingly, 48% of the children
were dependent upon school swimming lessons in order to learn to swim. They did not
receive swimming lessons from specific out-of-school hour learn to swim schemes due to:
Lack of affordability (31%)
Not perceiving that the children need swimming lessons (18%)
Not being able to access lessons due to them being full or at inconvenient times
(11%)
The lessons not accommodating the needs of specific cultures / faiths (10%)
The assumption that family and school swimming lessons will be sufficient (30%)
Following on from this latter reason, the provision of family teaching seems further limited.
Only 56% of respondents have at least one parent/guardian that can swim more than 1
length of a pool. This figure decreases to 53% when filtering only respondents of Asian
ethnicity, and 49% for Black/Caribbean/African ethnicity. Unfortunately the ASA does not
have figure work to suggest whether this is lower than answers from the general population.
For those parents that cannot swim, only 28% plan to enrol their child onto a Learn to Swim
scheme outside of school hours.
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In terms of circumstances which change the amount that respondents go swimming, learning
how to drive (10%), and local pools introducing gender only swim sessions (8%) both
increased swimming frequency. For those that said having children had an impact, 10% said
it increased their swimming frequency, whilst 11% said it decreased it. Factors that decrease
people’s swimming frequency also include going to college (13%), going to University (12%),
starting a new job (11%), friends stopping swimming (12%) and starting a new sport/hobby
(17%). 13% of respondents also believed that reaching an age where their beliefs impacted
on how easy it was for them to go swimming decreased their swimming frequency.
Other factors that prevent individuals from taking part in aquatic activities more often (if at
all) include cost (32%), lack of gender specific swim sessions (14%), lack of confidence in
the water (10%), and not having enough time in the day (25%).
Discounted swimming lessons (27%), discounted general swim sessions (32%) and family
swim deals (10%) are extras which would attract and encourage individuals to the pool more
often. Having quiet sessions where swimmers won’t get bothered or splashed would also
attract 16% of the questionnaire respondents. There are a number of things that facilities
could improve to attract and encourage people to use the pool more often including gender
separate changing rooms (16%), clean changing rooms (19%), and privacy in the changing
and shower areas (11%). 12% of respondents were also attracted by the potential of a gym
and swim combination (‘Swimfit’).
Results show that Facebook is the best way to promote swimming offers that would be of
benefit to the individual (34%), followed by word of mouth (25%), and posters at the local
leisure centre (24%).
8. Swim 4 Health
What is Swim4Health?
‘THE POOL IS A STUDIO FULL OF WATER’... DC Leisure are aiming to embrace this
philosophy. With the support of Sport England, and Monitoring & Evaluation expertise of the
ASA, DC Leisure hope to encourage more people into the pool through the use of ‘aquatic
advisors’ and a 6 and 12 week swimming offer
What is an aquatic advisor?
Predominantly gym-based staff who act as aquatic motivators. These individuals identify the
needs of members of the public and direct them to the most appropriate aquatic activity
using a 6 or 12 week offer (6weeks swim membership £25 or 12 weeks 20% swim discount
with option of 12 weeks of lessons for £24).
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RESEARCH AIMS / QUESTIONS:
Determine the impact that Swim4health has on participation
Explore whether swim4health would be popular as a gym / swim / class membership
offer from DC Leisure, or should it remain as separate membership offers
Identify the impact that Swim4Health has on swimmer retention and recruitment rates
OVERALL FINDINGS – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Characteristics
475 swim4health offers taken up by participants across 9 sites that provided data.
27% male / 73% female
87% of participants opted for 6 week option / 13% of participants opted for 12 week option
Swim4Health participants are predominantly existing casual pool users (not gym users, or
new customers)
Measure: No. of days doing 30mins of activity (any sport)
Baseline: 2.91 days of 30min activity a week
Increase so far: +13% activity = +0.90 days (3.81 days of 30mins activity a week)
Measure: Personal Health Rating (1 to 5, 5 is good)
Baseline: 3.57/5
Increase so far: +5% health rating = +0.26 (3.83/5)
Measure: Personal body appearance (1 to 5, 5 is good)
Baseline: 2.83/5
Increase so far: +5% feelings of body appearance = +0.28 (3.12/5)
Measure: Membership sign ups
Baseline: 0
Increase so far: 57 (12% membership retention rate)
Measure: Water confidence / ability (1 to 10, 10 is good)
Baseline: 7.18/10 (can swim around 100m in one go)
Increase so far: +6.5% improvement in swimming ability / confidence = +0.65 = (7.83/10 can
swim around 200m in one go)
Measure: Duration of swim (1 to 4 1= <20mins 2=20 mins 3 = 30 mins 4 = >30 mins)
Baseline: 2.91/4 –swim for 30mins
Increase so far: +9% in swim duration = +0.37 (3.27/4 swim for longer than 30mins)
PARTICIPANT VIEWS:
91% of participants listed their reasons for exercise as ‘to get fit’, ‘to lose weight’ and ‘to aid
health and injury’
35% of respondents swim more frequently as a result of Swim4Health
35% of respondents take part in more aquatic fitness classes as a result of Swim4Health
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26% of respondents swim for longer as a result of Swim4Health
22% of respondents are more water confident as a result of Swim4Health
31% of respondents tell us that they have upgraded to a DC Leisure membership since
completing their Swim4Health offer. The 69% that did not upgrade list reasons such as:
‘I can’t commit to anything other than pay as you’
‘No access to a membership that is similar to Swim4Health’
‘There are other deals that are better than membership such as 10 swims for the
price of 8’
‘I don’t have enough time to attend the leisure centre’
‘I can’t afford it’
‘There wasn’t enough swimming on offer in the pool timetable’
‘I don’t know what memberships are on offer – I will need one that can be used for
my family and for swim classes only’
AQUATIC ADVISOR VIEWS:
Promotion
Some sites finding it easier to focus on one offer (6wk / 12wk)
Methods used so far: Press releases, posters, leaflet drops, internal memos, banners,
letters, reception pop-ups, changing room pop-ups, t-shirts, outreach texts, receptionists
promoting at point of sale, phone calls to swim academy waiting lists, flyering local
companies, aqua classes, weight watcher group visits, GP referrals, targeting users of the
’10 swims for price of 8’ reward card, conversations with gym and non gym users.
only a few sites felt that promoting swimming to gym only users was lucrative
“About 75% of our sign ups are as a result of internal promotion”
“We made a big effort to get staff buy in and encourage everyone to spread the word”
Challenges for Aquatic Advisors (AAs)
“Swim4Health suits a defined clientele and that doesn’t include the gym-only users”
“There’s a big gap between appointments 1 and 2, and as many AAs are based in
the gym, we don’t get to see how clients are getting on”
“It’s hard to book in AA appointments when the AA staff are part time”
“There is a need to offer a good pool induction that will help change people’s opinion
of the pool. I’m not suggesting that you get people to pay for an induction like in the
gym, but offering an induction and getting them to turn up for the first swim4health
appointment is important as it can convince to people that swimming has changed
since they had their swimming lessons years and years ago”
“The name puts people off. 'Swim' makes it too swim focused and people don't
realise that swim4health isn't just about monotonous lane swimming”
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WHICH OPTION? 6 WEEK v 12 WEEK
6 Week option has proven far popular- 87% of participants opted for 6 week option
Key motives for these 6 week offer participants is to lose weight and increase fitness. Muscle
tone, increasing energy levels, recovering from injury and increasing flexibility are also rated
as important.
Key barriers for these 6 week offer participants to swim more include lack of time, money
and water confidence.
The 6 week offer (in comparison to the 12 week offer) so far has resulted in average
increases in health / body appearance perception, but larger than average increases in
exercise frequency.
Clients perceive the 6 week offer as ‘value for money’, short term commitment, flexible, a
good trial and intro to the facility membership, a ‘no-brainer’ and a good way to get to know
staff and what the facility as a whole has to offer.
General consensus from clients is that they want this option to be extended to 8 weeks.
They would also like the option of taking up the 20% off offer after their 6 week membership
has expired.
6 week offer persona: Suits ASA personas ‘On a budget swimmer’, ‘Supermum’, ‘Swimming
off sins’, ‘Worn out working rush’, ‘Water Workout’
o Suited to women aged between 30-60 years old, with currently low to average
fitness levels and an ability to swim 200m or more.
o Suits people who already swim (i.e. not new customers)
o Will sign up to membership if a cheap deal is available after their 6 weeks of
swim4health has ended –so have to time it right.
IDEAS FOR IMPROVEMENT:
Encourage PTs / weight watch group leaders / community leaders to try swim4health for free
so that they have buy in when discussing the programme with their groups / clients. There
may be a need to show PTs how to incorporate pool sessions into their client’s fitness
programmes (Swimfit cards would be useful here)
Enhance the client experience: Introduce swimfit, offer pool inductions that include a
‘technique diagnosis’ session, work with ASA demographic and persona information to
review pool timetable. Offer Swimfit as the way to induct someone to the pool as they will be
getting a motivational Swimfit Activator to accompany them.
Reduce dropout rates by contacting clients weekly to check in how they are getting on (this
contact could be made through a meeting, phone call, or aqua class etc). Keep their
motivation high with established rapport and a midway congratulations call.
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Allow clients to extend their swim4health membership by 6 weeks using either a % discount
(that beats other offers) or by use of a prepaid card with x amount of discounted swim. The
use of a prepaid card will stimulate usage through the client perception that if they do not
make use of the card, they would’ve wasted money.
Better prepare AAs: Offer aquatics and marketing training to AAs
Offer AAs training to lead aquatic / swimfit classes (encourage more poolside contact with
swim4health clients) and sales / marketing training (encourage closer working relationship
with sales team).
9. Active Workplaces
Why should a workplace introduce activity (and more specifically swimming) to the
workplace?
In a study completed by 2 academics who specialise in the area of Workplace Health &
Wellbeing, the costs associated with maintaining the work performance of 1288 employees
in the financial services sector were explored.
The study found that absence and presenteeism (when you’re at work, but not really giving it
your all) cost the organisation £4.5m. The cost included on-costs such as sick pay, health
insurance, pension, national insurance contributions,
salary and cover recruitment costs.
Cost Burden of Absence
To remedy the situation, the organisation paid out
Direct Costs
£664,000. To prevent the situation happening in the
• Salary costs
first place, the academics calculated that it would cost
• National Insurance contributions
• Bonuses/overtime
the organisation much less; £168,000.
• Pension contributions
The academics therefore concluded that it is much
Indirect costs
more effective to invest in an active workplace scheme
• Management time
• Lost business
(as form of absenteeism and presenteeism prevention)
• Penalties
than it is reacting to a poor health problem.
• Temporary cover
The cost of waiting for people to get sick far exceeds the
• Impact on other staff
• Approx 10% of salary and NI
cost of helping healthy people to stay healthy AND The
return on helping healthy people stay healthy far exceeds
the return on getting people better once they go sick.
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Using the findings from the study, the academics were able to put together a formula that
calculates the return on investment for an organisation wishing to invest in absenteeism and
presenteeism prevention. A worked example of this formula is as follows:
For a £100,000 investment into an active workplace scheme, an organisation can get a 20%
reduction in absenteeism, and 20% reduction in presenteeism, and a cost save of £645,770.
That’s a return on investment score of 6.46! Therefore, if a workplace were to invest
£1000 into Swimfit (whereby employees are able to access 3 months of Swimfit
sessions – a duration long enough to develop a sustainable ‘healthy’ behaviour) this
would help to reduce the short term and long term sickness in 20 employees and save
the workplace £3228 in costs of absenteeism and presenteeism.
Employees would suffer less with minor illnesses, back pain, stress, recurring
illnesses such as asthma and in general will find themselves more focused on work,
quicker with tasks, happier in their day to day activities and more involved in
enhancing workplace morale. Employee productivity would be vastly improved.
In addition to these benefits, research into Swimfit aquatic programmes informs us that
leisure operators benefit from a membership conversion rate from casual swimmers of 10%.
With this in mind, it may prove fruitful for a leisure operator to offer swimming sessions at
cost for 3 months (a period of which to cement sustainable active behaviour) to workplace
employees as a way of generating even higher site footfall and greater numbers of long term
memberships.
10. School Swimming
Between November 2012 – April 2013, the ASA Informatics Team conducted the largest
ever survey into school swimming (3,501 schools investigated). The findings were shocking
and calls for action from schools, teachers, the government, leisure providers, parents,
Ofsted and the ASA itself: Over 1.1 million primary school children will break up for half term
next week unable to be safe in and around water. That’s 51% of children aged seven to
eleven cannot swim the length of a typical swimming pool (25 metres) unaided.
The report found that schools are not achieving anywhere near the recommended level of
delivery time. The average state school pupil spends just 8 hours and 15 minutes a year in
swimming lessons at school, which is well under the 22 hours The Department for Education
recommends in the current National Curriculum.
With drowning amongst the leading cause of accidental death of children and young people
in England (according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), the ASA are
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worried deaths through drowning could increase in future if the current issues with school
swimming programmes are not addressed. It has already been highlighted in section 7 of
this report that there are large numbers of children across England that are dependent on
school swimming lessons to gain any experience of how to remain safe in and around water.
Where schools are achieving high attainment rates amongst their pupils it is attributed to
better pupil to teacher ratios, longer, more frequent lesson times and a higher number of
lessons offered. The report concludes that budget constraints in schools and a lack of
auditing by Ofsted to ensure schools are delivering swimming programmes, as set out by the
Department for Education, are at the heart of the problem.
Leisure providers can explore ways in which they can help schools and parents to react to
low attainment rates. Suggested areas of focus are as follows:
Paying premiums
for travel, teaching
& pool hire
Overlooking the
importance of
parents
School access to pools
Barrier
Solution
Offer discounted
pool hire rates
and space for
schools that swim
at ‘down time’
periods of your
timetable. This
discount may
need to be
passed through
local authority
curriculum swim
services.
Introduce
swimming
opportunities for
the family. This
may begin by
encouraging
parents to get
water confident
themselves
Provide a ‘School
Curriculum
Coordinator’
Actions
Allow schools to also hire a studio space that is not being used for
free so that teaching can take place on site.
Offer discounted rates below the ‘22hr’ target to encourage schools to
book more lesson time
Offer discounted rates to schools that book lessons longer than
30mins and more frequently than fortnightly. Intense courses should
receive better hire rates
Encourage schools to access an ‘Aquatic Youth Club’ directly after
schools and before learn to swim schemes begin. NB: Research that
supports this is available
Avoid only offering lunchtime teaching time to schools. These are
times that are logistically difficult for schools to implement.
Explore ways in which changing rooms can be made school friendly at
specific times, so that quick changing can be achieved for schools,
but existing pool users are not disrupted.
Utilise the ASA Personas including ‘Family Splash, Supermum, Dad’s
Dip, Learn to Swim Parent, Stigma Swim and Shy Wader’
Create habit. It takes three months to a year to install positive
behaviour change. Discounted lessons or family swimming for three
months
Introduce a ‘swim as a family’ workshop where hints and tips of how
to progress swimming ability can be discussed. There are a number of
videos here that can help: http://www.itv.com/daybreak/family/make-asplash/introduction-to-swimming/
This coordinator could support a number of schools to: a). Pool
financial and teaching resources so that b). Travel and pool hire can
be purchased through economies of scale and c). Lessons can take
place per ‘ability’ grouping across schools, rather than ‘year groups’.
The coordinator could also oversee lessons to ensure that quality
teaching is being delivered and monitored with teacher:pupil ratios
equal or less than 1:12.
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Cost of swimming for
families
Awareness of learn to swim schemes
Establish closer
partnerships with
local schools and
local authorities to
increase
awareness and
share information
with all pupils and
their parents
Offer discount for
children with low
school swimming
attainment (by
encouraging
improvement,
there is the
potential to
introduce a new
long term
swimming
customer to your
facility
Provide specific lessons for low swim attainment pupils (this requires
enhanced communication between provider and school)
Promote the fact that swimming is the ‘passport to water sports’. After
learning to swim, other aquatic activities can be accessed
Highlight to parents that in many pools, children over 8 years old can
swim unaccompanied in public swimming sessions. If a child can not
swim, they are missing out on this fun, social activity.
Introduce a ‘water safety’ club as part of learn to swim lessons that
could compliment key stage 2 swimming attainment – highlight to
parent contacts that ‘water safety is more than swimming’.
Educate parents on the consequences of not being able to swim and
being inactive (drowning / obesity / associated illnesses)
For non ASA learn to swim schemes, consider the possibility of
altering delivery to follow the British Gas ASA Learn to Swim Pathway
and affiliating as a swim21 scheme. Research tells us that 88% of
parents associate greater quality and efficiency with learn to swim
schemes that are endorsed by the governing body of swimming.
Review your learn to swim pool programming if there are clear
bottlenecks in progress. Research highlights ‘full lessons’ as a reason
why parents do not enrol their child onto out of school lessons
1 in 3 children state that swimming is their favourite family activity
(YouGov survey), this underlines there is demand for aquatic family
activity.
Discounts during holidays for parents practising swimming
Parents go free
Provide more teaching / play equipment in family swim sessions with
an instructor on poolside to show parents how to make full use of the
items and encourage swim development
Family memberships
Introduce family swimming lessons at low cost. 41% of parents
believe that school swimming lessons need to be supported with outof-school lessons, but at present these are perceived to be too
expensive.
It is important to consider that without change (from all parties previously mentioned),
England runs the risk of creating a generation of non swimmers. These non swimmers will,
in time, have their own children and pass on their dislike, or lack of confidence around water
to them. This obviously will have implications for the leisure industry in that swim sales will
gradually diminish. Action is required now in order to keep the nation swimming!
11. Swimfit
Having introduced the rebranded and revamped Swimfit product in 2012, the ASA
Informatics Team have spent the last 3 months collecting feedback regarding the product, its
delivery and its impact on participation and customer satisfaction. The findings from
observations, questionnaires and interviews discussed here will compliment the Swimfit Pilot
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report put together in Summer 2012. The full Swimfit M&E report for the period January –
April 2013 will be released at a later date (the headline findings are presented here).
The next Swimfit report (in 3 months time) will build on these findings with a variety of case
studies of how Swimfit has impacted on a leisure provider.
Session delivery:
46% of the sites ran evening sessions, 30% ran lunchtime sessions and 16% ran
morning sessions. Average swimfit sessions per site: 2.5/week.
Wider lanes are preferred
Of the 52% which do no aqua exercises or aqua jog during Swimfit sessions, Aquatic
Officers felt that 75% of them would benefit from adding this in, as long as the
exercises were not made compulsory for all Swimfit users.
Some Activators used iPads on poolside to show stroke technique. This helped the
more ‘fitness’ based activators to provide technical advice.
Participants:
Average of 9 participants per session. Almost one third of sessions have 10 or more
participants.
The structured Swimfit sessions have attracted regular participants, with 97% of the
Activators having regular attendees.
Participants were aged 27-53 years old.
Swimfit participants are varied in their swimming ability – but predominantly strong to
dedicated swimmers (i.e. can comfortably swim more than 200m, on a regular basis).
However, 63% of participants feel that they do not have the ability to join an aquatics
club. There is a large latent demand for Swimfit, particularly with Strong swimmers
and Challenge seeker swimmers.
Most common motives for taking part in Swimfit: improving ability (55%), improving
fitness (35%), losing weight (35%), socialising (14%) and recovering from injury or
illness (10%). Motives also included ‘triathlon support’.
Swimfit personas: committed challenge seekers (31%), me time swimmers (37.5%),
out of hours swimmers (25%), swimming off sins (37.5%), and water workout
swimmers (19%).
Not having enough time in the day (18%), inability to get to the sessions at the time
they are on (12%), and confidence in swimming ability (18%) are the main reasons
that participants do not take part in structured Swimfit sessions more regularly.
53% of participants find the sessions challenging; and 47% believe that their
swimming has improved since taking part in Swimfit. 59% enjoy the structure that
Swimfit gives to their swimming sessions. 82% of participants would recommend
Swimfit to friends and family.
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Some women would like the option of choosing their Swimfit card in reception.
The idea of SwimBritain (competition and training) appeals to 59% of Swimfit Users.
Just the competition itself (i.e. not the training) would appeal to 11%. SwimBritain
would not appeal to 30% of Swimfit users because they do not like big events or
don't like competing.
Revenue:
Casual users are charged on average £4.10 for a Swimfit session with an Activator.
Participants thought that (on average) £3.30 was an appropriate amount for a centre
to charge a casual swimmer for a structured Swimfit session. Most sites did not
charge their members for a Swimfit session, providing that their membership covered
use of the pool.
40% of swimfit participant respondents were already members before they took part
in Swimfit; of those that weren’t members, 40% plan to take out a membership at
their facility or have been considering it, since attending Swimfit sessions.
83% of Activators note that their session numbers have increased over time, whilst
one third of Activators claim to have grown in confidence week on week.
Over 50% of the Swimfit Activator’s agree that Swimfit is a ‘very good addition to the
pool timetable’. Almost one third of the Activators state that non swimmers are now
swimming due to the introduction of Swimfit in their pool. Existing swimmers are
swimming more as a result of Swimfit (58%).
Non Participants:
The most common reasons for members of the public NOT using Swimfit were: lack
of time (49%) and not knowing what Swimfit is (52%).
Non Swimfit users tell us that advertising Swimfit in the swimming pool changing
rooms (47%), in the facility’s gym (37%), and on facebook (33%) would catch the
attention of potential participants the best.
The setting of the pool (85%) and the time of the day (83%) are the biggest factors in
convincing an individual to swim more often. Setting involves providing a clean, quiet
pool with warm water. Having friends, family or work colleagues to swim with was
important for 77% of respondents.
12. Interesting articles
SportWorks by Sported. A review of the value of sport for the development sector, across
3,888 sport development projects across 198 agencies. Findings were grouped across
seven areas of positive outcomes:
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Reduced crime and anti-social behaviour
Improved educational attainment
Improved educational attendance
Reduced substance misuse
Increased wellbeing
Improved fitness
Reduced levels of young people who are NEET
Projects had the greatest impact on crime and substance misuse, closely followed by
improved educational attainment and wellbeing. Here, the term ‘impact’ relates to positive
changes in behaviour that reduces the risk and cost of poor behaviour or alternative
preventative methods.
The SportWork research developed an assessment tool that balanced risk with scale of
intervention. This form of social return model determined that for every individual involved in
the sport specific project, there was a cost saving of over £4000 per annum. This is the
social (and economic) value of sport. NB: This is a generic sport reference, further
investigation is needed to explore the impact of swimming specific studies.
13. What’s on the cards this month...
Moving through to next month, the Informatics Team will be focusing on the following....
1). Swimfit case studies
2). Swimfit Pop Up
3). Level Water: The insight team are working with a new charity which will be delivering
swimming lessons to children with physical disabilities. The insight team will be monitoring
and evaluating the project to determine whether the style of delivery enabled the young
swimmers to improve their swimming ability to the extent where they could rejoin
mainstream swimming pathways or disability swim clubs.
4). Swim Britain: The insight team are working with British Gas to monitor and evaluate the
success of their mass participation Swim Britain events. The research will begin in April
through National Data Collection and continue monthly until November when leisure provider
interviews will take place. The report will be due for release in December.
5). Events: The insight team are working with the Events team to evaluate five events of
various disciplines. The evaluations will seek the opinions of spectators, officials, volunteers
and athletes through focus groups and questionnaires.
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o
o
o
o
th
Synchronised Swimming Champs (13-14 April, Sheffield)
th
National champs (26-30 June, Sheffield)
th
th
Youth Champs (30 July – 4 Aug, Sheffield)
th
Disability Champs (25-28 April, Sheffield)
In addition to the above events, the Insight Team, with the help of a data administrator will
be exploring the delivery of the following events. The reason for this involvement is two-fold:
1). To review the event and 2). To support BME research project mentioned later on.
o
o
th
Junior diving champs (27-30 March, Leeds)
st
Fina world diving series (19-21 April, Edinburgh)
6). EKE: As some of you may already be aware, we have a PhD student (Junior
Onojeharho) working along the informatics team. Junior is working hard to develop a new
‘add on’ for our outlook email system (called EKE) that will identify who are the best people
to ask about certain aspects of GPS. We are in ‘test and learn’ stage of the project.
7). School Swimming: from now until the end of 2013, the Insight team will continue to build
our understanding of school swimming and will respond to plans outlined in the School
Swimming Manifesto.
9). Women’s Swim Networks: The insight team are working with SLM to present a new and
exciting offer to women when it comes to swimming. This online campaign, focusing heavily
on social media and motivational messaging in line with ASA personas will be launched on
5th June at Spelthorne leisure centre and Sunbury leisure centre. SLM will be providing the
ASA with a significant level of data in order to fully test the ASA personas.
10). Active Universities: Loughborough University’s ‘MySwim’ project continues to be
piloted as a way of testing the ‘student splash’ persona. The project (now in its 6th week)
combines Swimfit Activator+ with aqua circuits, a recreational swim network concept and
‘She Moves’ style social media. Findings to date are positive with consistently full sessions.
Findings will be due in May.
11). Waterbabies: The insight team are testing and learning from suggestions outlined in
the family splash, learn to swim parent, supermum, shy wader, worn out working rush and
dad’s dunk personas at Wellington Children’s Centre. The research builds on September’s
National Data Collection and will explore ways to:
Increase water confidence of parents
Increase water confidence of children under the age of 5
Help under 5’s meet their physical activity guidelines of 180mins a day
Promote sustained swimming activity for parents
Provide pre-school children with a head start for swimming
Enhance parent and child relationships through aquatic activity
Create a social encouraging atmosphere between parents
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Provide advice to parents on how to improve their own swimming skills and enhance the
aquatics development of their children (coursepro)
Reduce parental stress through the health benefits of swimming
The pilot will run for 12 weeks (so a behaviour change can be tracked) between 17th April –
7th July) and will provide dry and wetside learning for both parents and children –together
and individually.






Weds 0930-1100 dryside play
Weds 1030-1100 adult lessons
Fridays 1100-1130 parent & child sessions for 0-12m
Fridays 1130-1200 parent & child sessions for 13-24m
Fridays 1100-1230 access to soft play
th
Photoshoot on Weds 26 June
The pilot will be measure the impact of the above with regards to participation frequency,
ability, confidence, return on investment for all partners, sustainability.
12). 17 x Swim Active: The insight team will be monitoring and evaluating 17 Swim Active
school swimming projects across the country, that are funded by Kelloggs.
13). Officials: In the next months a questionnaire that explores how to build upon the
organisation’s official’s development pathway will be distributed.
14). Active Workplaces: An ongoing pilot with Leeds University that tracks the impact of an
aquatic intervention (that includes ‘aquatic champions’ in the workplace) and will be
providing the evidence behind how aquatic activity can enhance workplace productivity,
reduce absenteeism and lower employee presenteeism. The pilot launches on 22nd April and
will complete 12th July. Findings will be available August 2013, which will compliment and
further support the Active Workplace case studies released to AOs on 29th / 30th April.
15). iMaps: an exciting new piece of research that sees the ASA Informatics Team combine
forces with the ‘Information Science Department’ at Loughborough University. ‘iMaps’ will
develop a tool that can: predict changes in participation rates, discover ways in which pool
timetables can be optimised and foresee the scale of impact locally through aquatic
campaigns.
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