ePolitix.com speaks to Roger Millward, chief executive of the Swimming Teachers' Association, about water safety at home and abroad.

Question: You're celebrating 75 years as an organisation this year, what is the story behind STA?

Roger Millward: We're not totally sure, but we understand that in 1932, a group of swimming teachers were unhappy with the thrust of the way the Amateur Swimming Association was going, that they were too concerned with competition rather than learning to swim. A group of swimming teachers who wanted to professionalise this division broke away and formed an association which became the STA, with the ideal of swimming for fun health and safety, rather than for competition.

Question: What have the major changes been since 1932?

Roger Millward: When we started, we were very concerned with learning to swim for children, in other words, we had a badge scheme and a programme which taught children how to swim. We did a little bit, but not a great deal, of training of some teachers.

Over the past 10-15 years, we have become a QCA approved awarding body. We now train a lot of swimming teachers in a lot of disciplines, such as specialised swimming for young babies, people with special needs, and water exercise. We have also grown into life guarding, first aid and life saving, and pool plant operations. We have become a much broader organisation concerned with creating a safe environment in the aquatic arena and informing people through education of how to be safe in water.   

Question: You've also recently been awarded a top honour by the Council of Irish Water Safety, what does the award mean to you?

Roger Millward: Firstly, of course, I was immensely proud to receive it, but really it was an award for the STA. I head-up the association but it does recognise the huge amount of work we have done in Ireland, not directly but by working with them as a partner and that is the way the STA works.

We like to work with partners here and abroad and we freely pass over our knowledge and skills so they can tailor them for their market, therefore, no one has to reinvent the wheel. It was a wonderful award and very, very rare, I think it is the first one that has gone to a non-Irish national. The award was given to me in a ceremony at Dublin Castle, and the president of international life saving and the Irish home affairs minister were there. They gave out various awards for long service to rescues, and to myself as a life-governor.

Question: You do a lot of work internationally – do attitudes to water safety differ from country to country?

Roger Millward: Yes they do. I think we are one of the most highly developed countries in terms of water safety standards. Certainly, in developing countries it is very much 'at your own risk', whereas we are geared towards education, risk assessments, prohibition and fencing. In the Far East in particular they simply say 'mind where you go' and that's it. There is no training or education in a lot of places.

Question: You've said teaching children to swim is important, but what role can parents have?

Roger Millward: It is about education. It is not just about learning to swim; it is about learning the dangers. We saw that two people yesterday [November 21] drowned in Spain, a father and child from Shropshire, they were washed off a promenade and so being aware of how water can suddenly change is important. Parents have to make sure their children understand about the risks of water, but also how to enjoy it. And of course, it is important to learn to swim because it is a life skill.

I think also parents should be demanding of government and local authorities, that their children have places to go swimming, the pools aren't closed and lessons are available. And of course, as parents it is also important not just to leave it to the teachers but to do it themselves go swimming with the children and get them interested, take them boating or whatever. It might be so that it becomes a family fun thing and makes them safe.

Question: How can we prevent more tragedies like the drownings in the Algarve that happened recently?

Roger Millward: Like I said, it is about education - from parents to children. Parents have to have the information so that they can inform and make sure the children really do understand the dangers. With our swimming scheme we teach water safety at all stages. At the beginning this is through very simple questions such as 'which is the deep end?' We then make sure pupils don't go in the deep end until they are ready. As we go through the stages, we teach some basic survival and rescue techniques. So it is fun for everyone and it is educational as well.

The other big issue is getting the Key Stage Two standard, which is 25 metres, both enforced and increased. This distance is completely inadequate; people are passing the  curriculum Key Stage Two test by paddling 25 metres in warm water but if they were dropped in cold water, they would probably swim five metres, if that.

You need much more skill and much more stamina to swim in an alien environment, such as a sea, river, lake or canal, if you get washed in or dropped in. We need to raise the standards in education and we need to make sure the standards of teaching are up to scratch as well. A lot of the teaching is done by unqualified teachers and so we need more training and more pools.

Question: What plans do you have for the future?

Roger Millward: We are always developing. I don't want to reveal what is going on to any great extent but we do have some new developments coming out in the spring. We have new initiatives in the UK and we will be making some fairly major announcements in the spring about that.

This includes a programme to work towards the Olympics to encourage participation, and also more water safety education both here and abroad.

Question: You obviously have a good relationship with many schools and businesses; do you also work closely with government?

Roger Millward: It depends on the government department. The big tragedy as far as we're concerned in working with the government is that swimming is associated with sport and the department of sport, whereas we're not in sport, we're in teaching swimming and water safety.

So we have positive relationships if we initiate them, as we have with the department for education, but we do tend to get completely disregarded in terms of new initiatives because the government thinks that swimming is competition and that it is sport.

Question: Any final comments for ePolitix.com readers?

Roger Millward: Here at the STA we have wealth of experience and information. We have been going 75 years and we have got over 5,000 members in the UK, as well as overseas. We have got a huge resource that is not government-funded, but all self-funded, and is not being properly tapped into by the government to support its agenda.

We are into fitness, obesity, and inclusiveness. We are into grassroots sports because grassroots sports start with learning to swim. However, with all of those things we are not being engaged, and frankly, the government is losing the use of resources, and that is very sad.