North Yorkshire Council achieves Swim England's Water Wellbeing accreditation

North Yorkshire Council has become the latest local authority to achieve Swim England’s Water Wellbeing accreditation.

Four of its leisure centres – Northallerton, Bedale, Thirsk & Sowerby and Stokesley – have achieved the mark after significant changes were made to each facility.

Water Wellbeing has been developed with the aim of transforming existing community swimming pool assets into places for health, wellbeing and rehabilitation.

This model can be implemented by any public pool in England and helps to improve outcomes for people with long-term health conditions.

North Yorkshire Council made alterations to each of the facilities to make them more accessible and inclusive for people with long-term health conditions and more than 60 members of its staff also undertook Activity Alliance training.

The training, which is a key element of Water Wellbeing compliance, gives staff a greater knowledge of disabilities and teaches them how to offer support which, in turn, provides more opportunities for people to take part in aquatics in the way that suits them.

What’s more, adult swim provision at all four sites has been enhanced to provide greater opportunities for members of their local communities to get active.

More accessible

David Ashbridge, head of sport and active wellbeing (operations) at North Yorkshire Council, said: “The Water Wellbeing accreditation is not just a ‘tick in the box’ for our service – it aligns with our ambition to offer inclusive, health and wellbeing opportunities for everyone in North Yorkshire.

“The comprehensive assessments carried out by Swim England have enabled us to make our swimming pools more accessible and develop our training programme to help our teams better understand the customer swimming journey.

“More and more facilities up and down the country are working towards the Water Wellbeing accreditation as they place a focus on water-based health and wellbeing.”

Matthew Martin, Swim England’s health and wellbeing officer, added: “Swim England has been supporting North Yorkshire Council across a number of key areas, in order to maximise the long-term sustainability and growth of its aquatic assets.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with the North Yorkshire Council team at all levels, who have shown unwavering commitment to the accreditation process and making their facilities more accessible, welcoming and inclusive. 

“I look forward to seeing the impact of this work and the benefits it will bring for local communities.”

For more information on Water Wellbeing or other aspects of Swim England’s health and wellbeing work, get in touch at [email protected].