The National Water Safety Forum (NWSF) has launched the new UK Drowning Prevention Strategy 2026-2030, as well as four new national strategies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The new UK Drowning Prevention Strategy is backed by more than 130 organisations across the UK, including national charities, search and rescue organisations, water safety practitioners, academic experts, educators, and families who have experienced personal loss to drowning. This strategy succeeds the first UK Drowning Prevention Strategy (2016–2026) and differs in that it does not provide specific actions or targets. Instead, it serves as a “guiding-principles” document, providing a broad strategy with agreed principles for each of the UK nations to adopt and to tailor implementation: education, communication, policy, and data and evidence. The key principles for preventing drowning that are set out in the UK Drowning Prevention Strategy have been used to inform consistent and complementary strategies across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland which identify key areas of focus that relate to their own individual risks and concerns.