HSE warns councils after Essex told to pay £30k+ over swimming pool case

A county council has been ordered to pay more than £30,000 in fines and costs after a disabled child almost drowned at a school swimming pool.

A Health & Safety Executive investigation after the incident found that Essex County Council had failed to provide schools with adequate information and guidance on how to safely manage and run their swimming pools.

The local authority was prosecuted by the HSE after the incident on 23 March 2011, when a nine-year-old boy with severe learning and physical disabilities was pulled from the water at Harlow Fields School and College and needed resuscitation.

Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court was told that the boy and his class had been in the pool with inadequate supervision. The boy, who was kept at Princess Alexander hospital for 26 hours after the incident, is now afraid of the water, his mother said.

The HSE told magistrates that Essex, as the employer, should have provided the school with sufficient information to prepare operating and emergency plans for the swimming pool, and should have taken steps to ensure the guidance had been followed.

The council pleaded guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, and was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay costs of £10,110.

HSE Inspector Nicola Jaynes said: "This incident could have ended in tragedy and clearly demonstrates the need for local authorities to provide clear and up-to-date training, guidance and information to schools where they are the employer, so that schools can safely manage their swimming pools.

"It also demonstrates that local authorities have a duty to ensure that where issues haven been identified with schools not following guidance, remedial steps are taken to rectify these failings. HSE will not hesitate to prosecute those who put lives at risk and compromise safety."