Consider lack of swimming ability on holiday breaks parents warned

Families are busy planning their get-away break for the long summer holiday without accounting for the dangers of the hotel pool.

Even though drowning is the third biggest cause of accident death in the UK, a whopping 87 per cent of parents planning their holidays are not taking a lack of swimming ability as an important consideration.

In fact, according to 2,000 parents polled by baby swimming company Water Babies, 67 per cent of parents ranked swimming as one of the least important life skills.

Paul Thompson, co-founder of Water Babies, comments: “Teaching a child basic water safety and confidence in the water saves lives. Amazingly, with progressive training, babies can be taught life survival skills very early on, such as turning onto their backs or, following a sudden submersion, swimming to the nearest solid object.”