Water Safety Stakeholder Group annual report: action plan
- Last updated
- 23 July 2024 - see all updates
- Directorate
- Safer Communities Directorate
Annual report 2023/24 providing an update on collaborative working to help prevent drownings in Scotland
Following a tragic spate of drowning incidents in Scotland’s waterways during the summer of 2021, the Scottish Government in partnership with a range of key organisations, developed the Water Safety Action Plan 2022-2026. This plan compliments Scotland’s Drowning Prevention Strategy which was released in 2018.
We are now at the halfway point of delivering the Action Plan and considerable progress has been made.
May 2023 saw the introduction of the Drowning Incident Review (DIR) process. This has made significant improvements to the way in which data is recorded and provides a more detailed understanding of the circumstances that surround water-related fatalities. Learnings from this process will help inform improvement activity for emergency response and future prevention activity.
Significant progress has also been made in improving water safety signage. Water Safety Scotland conducted an audit in 2022, which found that water safety signage across Scotland lacked uniformity. Water Safety Scotland and its partners, completed research that reached expert consensus on the necessary components of water safety signs. The agreed signs were then tested with the public and published into guidance along with guidance on the creation of Unique Location Codes (ULCs).
ULCs are an important component on safety signs which helps emergency services to pin point the location of the incident, improves response times and increases the chance of rescue. The project is now within the pilot phase with numerous areas across Scotland adopting the ULC and water safety signage guidance.
Over the last year the Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown has continued to convene meetings with water safety stakeholders to ensure maximum collaboration between Government and partners.
This annual report provides an overview of the progress made thus far. Water safety stakeholders continue to work on the remaining outstanding actions and a further update will be provided in the 2025 annual report.
The stakeholders involved to date have been:
- Convention Of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA)
- Crown Estate Scotland
- His Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG)
- Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park
- Police Scotland
- Royal Lifesaving Society (RLSS)
- Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)
- Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
- Scottish Ambulance Service
- Scottish Canals
- Scottish Community Safety Network (SCSN)
- Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS)
- Scottish Government (including Education Scotland and Marine Scotland)
- sportscotland
- Scottish Swimming
- Scottish Water
- Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE)
- Water Safety Scotland (WSS)
A key theme emerging from the discussions has been the value of further supporting and solidifying the role of Water Safety Scotland (WSS) as the lead forum for enabling individual agencies to take a consistent, collaborative and evidence-based approach and ensure that the impact of their efforts is more than the sum of their parts. To strengthen this pivotal role, the Scottish Government continues to fund RoSPA to provide operational support and to help lead and manage WSS.
More broadly, as summarised in this document, the stakeholders have agreed to work in close partnership with WSS and also to focus actions across four key operational areas:
- partnership working
- intelligence gathering and sharing
- awareness raising
- skills training
- response to incidents
Open the following outcomes to see the actions associated with them:
Outcome one: partnership working
We agree that efforts should continue to build on existing good practice in collaboration and engagement between our respective organisations; and to continue to support the role of Water Safety Scotland as a centre of expertise with a focus on improving water safety in Scotland.
Action 1.1
All partners to consider becoming members of Water Safety Scotland.
Lead Organisation(s): all
Status: 67 organisations, including emergency service providers and local authorities are currently members. Membership is reviewed and encouraged on an ongoing basis.
Timing: complete.
Action 1.2
Relevant partners to identify members within their organisations to sit on Water Safety Scotland Subgroups and devote time and energy to taking forward their respective work programmes.
Lead Organisation(s): all
Status: members have all been identified to sit on the various subgroups to drive forward subgroup workplans. WSS have also introduced governance changes to ensure fairer and more diverse representation at the Steering Group level of WSS.
Timing: complete.
Action 1.3
Identify appropriate routes for families affected by water-related fatalities to be involved in identifying and developing improvements to current practice.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: RoSPA have organised training with Child Bereavement UK for WSS members. Additionally, WSS signposts families and individuals affected to specialist organisations. A full WSS protocol is also in place for supporting with families affected by water-related fatalities.
Timing: complete.
Outcome two: intelligence gathering and sharing
We have reviewed our approaches to information gathering and sharing, including around fatal and non-fatal incidents. We agree to share data more collegiately and have an agreed process in place for this data to be pulled together and shared to facilitate mutual understanding of issues and improvements in practice.
Action 2.1
Introduce a voluntary Drowning and Incident Review (DIR) procedure to ensure a comprehensive review of each accidental water-related fatality to gather all relevant data and intelligence to help prevent future incidents.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: DIR went live on 2 May 2023.
Data capture has been significantly enhanced and Scotland is at 100% data capture for water-related fatalities. The process is working effectively with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal as well as lead Search and Rescue organisations who are committed to fully implement DIR across Scotland.
A training package, along with support, is available for all those likely to be involved in DIR.
Timing: complete.
Action 2.2
RoSPA to build on and progress further improvements to the Water Incident Database (WAID) system to ensure data can be shared quickly, securely and in real time.
Lead Organisation(s): RoSPA
Status: the new WAID data entry App is now live and capable of capturing new incident details. Work on the wider platform has stalled due to unforeseen complexities. Work is ongoing to secure support for WAID.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 2.3
Police Scotland to feed incident data into the Water Incident Database (WAID).
Lead Organisation: Police Scotland
Status: this action is closed as Police Scotland’s preference is to feed data into the DIR process. Police Scotland has fully committed to the DIR process, but work is ongoing to ensure local areas understand and use the process effectively.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 2.4
Continue to support and develop Partnership Approach to Water Safety (PAWS) Groups to collate and utilise relevant data from stakeholders to develop comprehensive local approaches to drowning prevention.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland, RNLI, SFRS, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, COSLA and SOLACE
Status: PAWS groups are now active in the majority of Scotland’s local authorities (94%) but still require consolidation and ongoing support from WSS. Although the top 10 high risk areas receive the most support from WSS and its key partners, all PAWS groups receive support including: an annual webinar, guidance documents and free resources.
PAWS groups require continued commitment from WSS partners, in particular the Emergency Services, for their continued success in bridging national direction and asset use with local areas.
Timing: local PAWS group meetings held quarterly or bi-monthly.
Action 2.5
Scottish Ambulance Service to analyse water incident data to identify hotspot areas and review current location of water assets.
Lead Organisation(s): Scottish Ambulance Service
Status: work is ongoing by Scottish Ambulance Service to fully endorse DIR and be involved nationally and locally.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 2.6
RoSPA to analyse WAID data to identify hotspot areas and provide information to SFRS to utilise across Scotland and use this to implement action plans for these areas through the creation of PAWS groups.
Lead Organisation(s): SFRS and RoSPA
Status: data analysed by RoSPA has resulted in the top 10 high-risk PAWS areas receiving the most support from WSS and its partners. SFRS have also used the data to create and implement Hot Spot Action Plans. Additionally, RoSPA’s ten-year local authority research, supported by WSS, is complete. Results suggest positive developments from local authorities over the last decade in water safety but with a need for improvement in the creation of water safety polices.
Timing: complete.
Action 2.7
His Majesty’s Coastguard (HMCG) to share intelligence with all Scottish Local Authorities on incident trends to allow more targeted and responsive mitigations to be put in place.
Lead Organisation(s): HMCG
Status: HMCG is in the process of finalising this information and the method in which intelligence will be shared with Local Authorities. WSS has asked HMCG to add WSS messaging to this communication.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 2.8
Collate data on water sports participation in Scotland to identify emerging/new sports and changing behaviour in relation to water sports participation and subsequent requirements for awareness-raising and training to reflect this.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland and sportscotland
Status: sportscotland work closely with WSS and sit across different subgroups. Data and collaboration has resulted in improved communication assets on specific water-based activities.
Timing: complete.
Outcome three: awareness raising
We agree to enhance existing activity around raising awareness of the dangers of water and all aspects of water safety, notably through engagement and support of Water Safety Scotland; and we agree to promote appropriately consistent signage and ensure that it is correctly positioned.
Action 3.1
Deliver enhanced educational resources.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: all education resources and assets have been published for practitioner use including both primary and secondary level.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.1 (a)
Develop and roll out a national educational resource on water safety for each educational level on water safety.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland and Education Scotland
Status: The progression pathway was launched in April 2022.
- Early Level November 2022
- First Level February 2023
- Second Level March 2023
- Third/Fourth Level April 2022
- Senior Years June 2022
All levels include extension activities and resources/assets for use by teachers. An evaluation of the resources is ongoing with RoSPA, WSS and Abertay University. This is due to be published in 2025.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.1(b)
Develop progression pathway, lesson plans and supporting guidance to aid practitioners in water safety teaching and learning.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: WSS and Education Scotland have launched a full progression pathway for water safety education for schools in Scotland. WSS continues to promote the resources and has recently hosted a webinar attended by teachers, headteachers and local authority staff working in education.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.1(c)
Create Scotland-specific video resources.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: WSS and partners have created several videos to help support education resources including content on: the water safety code, cold water shock and what to do in an emergency. Activity specific safety videos have also been released in early 2024 with more planned for mid - 2024 and 2025.
Timing: complete.
Action: 3.1 (d)
Encourage young people to experience being safe in open water environments.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland
Status: WSS have released Experiential Learning Guidance for partners and agencies across Scotland. Produced under the management of RoSPA and SFRS and with the input of partners such as the Outdoor Partnership, Scottish Swimming and Loch Ken Trust. This document was released on the 19th March 2024 and can be accessed on the Water Safety Scotland website.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.2
Develop and promote consistent public safety messaging on water safety and drowning prevention in advance of spring and summer 2022.
Lead Organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland, with all stakeholders as appropriate.
Status: WSS’s Water Safety Code is the key message for drowning prevention in Scotland. Almost all partners are utilising the message and complimenting their own messaging with the Code. The message is also promoted at Point of Sale with several Scottish led companies and retailers.
The Water Safety Code is also available in 9 languages: English, French, German, Gaelic, Chinese, Polish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Punjabi.
The WSS website was also updated, redesigned and launched in March 2023 in order to increase traffic to the advice hub.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.3
Put in place a programme of pop-up water safety events during 2022 at key sites in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park to promote water safety and drowning prevention.
Lead Organisation(s): Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park (LLTNPA)
Status: between April 2023 and April 2024, LLTNPA Rangers have coordinated 12 water safety events across various Loch Lomond hot spot sites. SFRS and WSS continue to support LLNPA events.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.4
Undertake an audit of existing water safety signage in Scotland to facilitate the delivery of a consistent, effective approach.
Lead Organisation(s): RoSPA, RNLI. SCSN and Water Safety Scotland
Status: ongoing
A full water safety signage audit was undertaken in 2022 and has been published.
Following this, in 2023 and 2024, RoSPA and SFRS led the signage project which aims to create consistent water safety signage. This was completed in three phases.
Phase 1: A pilot survey was conducted between June-Oct 2023 within LLTNP and with members of the public
Phase 2: An expert consensus panel was used to agree the final content and look of the water safety signs (completed in 2023).
Phase 3: This phase took the agreed water safety signs, as reached by consensus in phase two, and tested the signage with members of the public. A quantitative survey was used between January 11th – 24th January 2024.
See: Water Safety Signage Research Report.
Unique Location Code (ULC) guidance, which is an integral part of the sign, was also released in early 2024.
A full guidance document was released in early 2024 following this research. A trial of the signage and ULCs will be led by SFRS and RoSPA across numerous areas in Scotland.
Timing: end of 2024.
Action 3.5
Compile a list of Scottish beaches and carry out an audit of public rescue equipment and signage to help identify suitable control measures to prevent injury and drowning.
Lead organisation(s): RNLI
Status: signage and Public Rescue Equipment audits have been carried out by the RNLI on several beaches in Scotland. The audits were carried out on beaches where incidents occurred, or in response to a request made by the landowner.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.6
Undertake a two year programme to review signage and security at the most popular reservoirs in Scotland.
Lead organisation(s): Scottish Water, including Police Scotland
Status: as part of Scottish Water’s “Enabling Access” project, Police Scotland is focusing on the most problematic reservoirs. A total of 15 specific locations across Scotland have been identified due to incidents of anti-social behaviour, camping, parking issues and swimming incidents being reported.
A range of tangible improvements to sites has been undertaken including new signage, the removal of old messaging plus significantly, the employing of Rangers to carry out patrols on some of the more problematic reservoirs. In addition, messaging via social media has been regularly sent out, along with Police Scotland’s continued engagement with Partners via the Visitor Management Strategy and Chairmanship of the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime (SPARC).
Scottish Water is developing a risk assessment process for identifying potential issues at their most popular reservoirs. New signage is being piloted at Gladhouse Reservoir, Midlothian over summer 2024.
Timing: ongoing to 2025.
Action 3.7
Erect signage at popular hotspots in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
Lead organisation(s): Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park
Status: Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park seasonal signage is in place at popular hotspots. Signs contain a QR code linking directly to the dedicated water safety webpage on Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park website. In 2023 Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park have co-branded their seasonal signage with the WSS logo. Replacement permanent signage will also incorporate the WSS logo to help promote national awareness.
Rangers are continuing to engage with visitors and campers on a daily basis promoting water safety and the water safety code, while patrols also monitor that signs remain in place at these key access points to lochs within the National Park.
Timing: complete.
Action 3.8
Carry out a review of water safety and drowning prevention arrangements across all canals and destinations to deliver a consistent and proportionate approach to help identify measures (including signage, public rescue equipment and communications) that will reduce the likelihood of drownings on our waterways.
Lead organisation(s): Scottish Canals
Status: Scottish Canals has carried out an initial review of water safety and drowning arrangements across a selection of sites in conjunction with RoSPA. They are now in the process of developing strategy and standards to be applied across the wider estate. The immediate focus has been around their reservoirs where they have developed a range of enhanced signage for users with key messages and alignment with #respectthewater campaign; and provided additional signage in reaction to silt hazard resulting from lower water levels.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 3.9
Promote water safety partnership working.
Lead organisation(s): RoSPA and Water Safety Scotland
Status: WSS has successfully held several major events over the past couple of years to help promote partnership working. These include the (online) Water Safety Conference as well as continuing to lead on hosting a Water Safety Open day held on World Drowning Prevention Day (25 July). Annual meets for members and online webinars are also held each year.
Timing: complete.
Outcome four - skills training
We will review what core skills are required for the general population and for specific groups and agree our role in developing and improving these skills.
Action 4.1
Deliver the ‘Waterside Responders’ course to those who live or work near water to train the public on the use of water-related public rescue equipment.
Lead organisation(s): RNLI and SFRS, supported by Water Safety Scotland.
Status: WSS and SFRS have paused their support of the Waterside Responder Scheme. RNLI are currently reviewing a new process for Waterside Responder to ensure that all trainers have a minimum qualification of DEFRA level 1. WSS and SFRS will make a decision on future support when a project plan has been provided.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 4.2
Develop practical lifesaving provision across Scotland, including lifesaving training.
Lead organisation(s): RLSS
Status: RLSS has set up a new community voluntary infrastructure in Scotland which is intended to increase water safety education and training.
The pilot phase is now complete and is being reviewed. RLSS UK is consulting with WSS to target the areas of the highest priority with the aim of establishing lifesaving clubs in those areas. WSS anticipates that this will be in the top ten high-risk areas, as analysed for PAWS group prioritisation. WSS has also stressed the need for RLSS UK to promote the WSS education assets created by partners to ensure consistency.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 4.3
Promote quality learn to swim programmes.
Lead organisation(s): Scottish Swimming and Scottish Water
Status: Scottish Swimming continues to support the National Learn Swim Framework partners. The Learn to Swim Framework includes links and reference to the WSS Water Safety Code.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 4.4
School swimming provision.
Lead organisation(s): Scottish Swimming, sportscotland, Scottish Water, local authorities.
Status: Scottish Swimming have established a project group that has met regularly and has agreed an approach to pilot 4 different delivery models of school swimming to shape and develop a School Swimming Framework. Lessons learned from the pilots will be embedded within the School Swimming Framework to support the potential roll-out of larger scale programme over the next few years.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 4.5
Explore the scope for designated ‘safe swimming’ locations in Scotland.
Lead organisation(s): RLSS
Status: RLSS is building a case of support for landowners and local authorities to consider the benefits of safe swimming zones. One of the main potential barriers to this will be the cost associated with funding lifeguard provision. RLSS is building pre-existing case studies to create a cost-benefit analysis which will help inform options for going forward.
Timing: ongoing.
Outcome five: response to incidents
We have more effective and proactive preparations for responding to incidents; and have considered the most effective collaborative approach to resource distribution, alert notification, rapid mobilisation and location identification.
Action 5.1
Explore potential to develop a Search and Rescue Water Safety Subgroup focussed on emergency response to water safety incidents.
Lead organisation(s): Water Safety Scotland, SFRS, Police Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service and HM Coastguard
Status: WSS has successfully set up a full Search and Rescue (SAR) subgroup to focus on the emergency response to a water-based emergency. A full workplan is available for 2024/25 and includes focus on a National Exercise Guidance Document, which is due to release by December 2024.
Timing: complete.
Action 5.2
Emergency responders to identify any areas of improvement and joint training requirements.
Lead organisation(s): SFRS, Police Scotland, Scottish Ambulance Service and HM Coastguard
Status: The SAR subgroup has completed the following three inland national exercises: Loch Lubnaig (2022), Mugdock Park (2023) and Loch Lomond tabletop (2023). A national exercise is due to be held each year and the 2024 exercise is anticipated to be held at Loch Lomond in November.
Timing: complete.
Action 5.3
Review the ‘Multi Agency Incident Response Guidance’ (MAIRG) for Loch Lomond in advance of summer 2022 to ensure protocols are consistent and effective.
Lead organisation(s): Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
Status: A review of the MAIRG was undertaken by Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park in early 2022 in consultation with local and national partners. This review resulted in a refreshed and relevant guidance document for multi-agency response to Loch Lomond.
Following this, the WSS SAR subgroup agreed to create a guidance document on how to create a MARIG. Led by SFRS and supported by WSS, this has been published and is available for local PAWS groups and partners.
Timing: complete.
Action 5.4
Undertake training exercises on alert notification, rapid mobilisation and response.
Lead organisation(s): Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park/PAWS (led by PAWS, supported by LLTNPA)
Status: these elements are being tested during the training exercises listed in 5.2 to ensure effective notification and appropriate response to reports of emergency incidents.
The SAR subgroup continue to discuss improvements with emergency service partners in the field. Planning has commenced to arrange a further National training event in November 2024 at Loch Lomond.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 5.5
Ongoing review of the nature, number and deployment of incident response and of rescue equipment.
Lead organisation(s): all Search & Rescue stakeholders
Status: these elements are being tested during the training exercises listed in 5.2 to ensure the most appropriate resources are mobilised to incidents and that emergency responders understand partner assets and resource availability.
Additionally, WSS has released ULC guidance that aims to bring consistency to the numbering of water safety signage and Public Rescue Equipment throughout Scotland. It is anticipated that the wide adoption of ULCs across Scotland will enhance emergency service response.
Timing: ongoing.
Action 5.6
Support to local Search and Rescue Committees in all coastal areas of Scotland.
Lead organisation(s): HM Coastguard
Status: local Search and Rescue Committees are chaired by HMCG and are present in all coastal areas of Scotland. They review data and trends to identify where changes to resource distribution are required and ensure that the response to incidents is appropriate. HMCG has shared this data via WAID.
Timing: ongoing.
- First published
- 25 March 2022
- Last updated
- 23 July 2024 - show all updates
- All updates
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Various updates made to action plan.
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Updated to become the annual report with action plan.
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