BACKGROUND
The Australian aquatic industry plays a pivotal role in shaping the health and vitality of the nation, and this report aims to report on the pertinent aspects of the industry which contribute to safer communities and improved safety at aquatic facilities, including:
- Industry Size, Scope, and Social Value
- Industry Safety Performance and Trends
- Key Safety Initiatives, Projects, Research, and Programs
- Facility Developments or Re-developments
KEY FINDINGS (SAFETY)
2023 Public Pool Incidents
- 6 drowning deaths
- 18 non-fatal drownings
- 7,879 rescues and near misses
Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations - Subscriptions
- only 37% of publicly-accessible aquatic facilities have a current subscription to the Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations
2023 Safety Assessment Data
- 360 (14.5%) Australian aquatic facilities underwent a recognised safety assessment in 2023
- 79% was the national average safety assessment score
Top performing areas in safety assessments included:
- Work health safety compliance
- Design of lap pools
- Design of leisure pools
Low performing areas in safety assessments included:
- Training and qualifications compliance
- Emergency management compliance
- Aquatic supervision compliance
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE
- Improvements to how industry indentifies risk and benchmarks safety conformance against standards, guidelines and regulatory frameworks, by ensuring facilities undertake routine Royal Life Saving recognised safety assessments
- Increased programs and incentives for pool owners and operators to undertake assessments
- Ensuring facilities are designed in compliance with guidelines, standards and regulatory frameworks from the outset, by completing a Royal Life Saving recognised safety assessment during the design phase
- Ensuring child supervision programs are in place at all publicly-accessible pools, and communal pools
- Ensuring staff training and qualifications systems are further professionalised and aligned nationally
The report is available to read below
State of Industry Safety Report
Report methodology and background presentation
On the 22nd May 2024, Royal Life Saving hosted a webinar discussing the background to the report and why it is important.
The webinar recording will be available soon in the GSPO Subscriber area of the website here:
