Background Scotland carries a disproportionate number of drowning fatalities in comparison to its UK and European neighbours. Scotland’s water safety programme, Water Safety Scotland, (WSS) has been working since 2014 to improve water safety and prevent drownings. This presentation will provide insight into the creation, development and implementation of Scotland’s Water Safety programme known as Water Safety Scotland.

Objective The Water Safety programme aligns under WSS - a partnership organisation managed by RoSPA. WSS’s main goal is to reduce accidental drowning fatalities.

Programme Description WSS is national and works across the entire country. A Strategy and Ministerial Action Plan influence the strategic direction set and WSS has created workstreams to take forward specific aspects of the strategy e.g., education, communication, promotion of water safety advice and improved data systems.

Outcomes and Learnings The creation of Scotland’s Drowning Prevention Strategy has been endorsed and supported across Scotland by both Government and local and national partners. Several workstreams have been highly successful. For example, education resources on water safety have been embedded into the education curriculum and likewise a Drowning and Incident Review process has been implemented that compliments the legal structure. Local water safety groups have been set up across every region of Scotland and consistent messaging is pushed out by the 50+ member organisations that make up WSS.

Implications The creation of WSS, and its subsequent strategy, has been instrumental in increasing awareness of water safety, both with the public of Scotland and also politically. It has resulted in strong support for WSS by the Government and has resulted in consistent and collaborative outputs. Much of the learning from this programme is highly adaptable to other regions and injury prevention topics.

Conclusions Drowning is a serious issue in Scotland and this programme manages and implements change. WSS has shown impressive development since its creation in 2014. This presentation will detail this and its most recent successes.