The Royal Life Saving Society UK’s flagship national water safety campaign will run from 13 to 20 June 2026, with a renewed focus on reaching children, young people and families ahead of the summer holidays.

The campaign, now in its 13th year, follows a week in which 12 children and five adults drowned during the half-term heatwave. RLSS UK said the incidents underline the urgent need for wider access to water safety education and self-rescue skills.

Drowning Prevention Week is built around the Water Safety Code, which encourages people to stop and think, stay together, float if they fall in, and call 999 in an emergency. The aim is to give children, parents and carers simple, memorable advice that can help them make safer decisions in, on and around water.

This year, RLSS UK has developed new campaign materials designed specifically to resonate with male teenagers, after figures from the National Child Mortality Database showed that 13 to 17-year-olds are among those at greatest risk of accidental drowning.

Leisure operators can access a wide range of free resources through the RLSS UK website, including posters, digital assets, lesson plans and interactive activities.

Jo Talbot, commercial director at RLSS UK, said: ‘Drowning Prevention Week is a collective effort. As the countdown to summer begins, we urge leisure operators to help us reach more communities than ever and move closer to our vision of communities free from drowning.’

RLSS UK’s new ambassador, Tom Dean MBE, triple Olympic swimming champion and founder of Tom Dean Swim School, will also support the campaign by promoting the importance of embedding water safety and self-rescue skills into swimming lessons.

Dean, who believes ‘all children should have the opportunity to learn lifesaving water safety skills’, will present a major water safety education event for 700 schoolchildren in Maidenhead. He will also speak at the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Water Safety Education, where he will call for more consistent swimming and water safety education for all children.

Drowning remains one of the leading causes of accidental death in the UK, yet RLSS UK says many incidents are preventable with the right knowledge and awareness.

The annual campaign already brings together more than 1,000 leisure operators and swimming pools across the UK and Ireland to deliver free water safety education to children and young people. The timing of the campaign is designed to reach families before the summer holidays, which historically see the highest number of drowning fatalities, according to data from the UK Water Incident Database.

In 2025, Drowning Prevention Week reached more than 2.3 million children, highlighting the scale of the campaign and the role the leisure sector can play in delivering lifesaving education at community level.

RLSS UK said leisure centres and swimming pools are central to the campaign’s success because they are trusted local hubs, already connected to schools, families and community organisations.

Operators are encouraged to use the campaign week to deliver water safety assemblies in schools, incorporate water safety into swimming lessons and run community events such as workshops, Rookie Lifeguard taster sessions and family activity days.

Andrew Clark, head of sport and aquatics at GLL, said: ‘Our mission is to ensure everyone in our communities has the opportunity to learn how to swim and become safe in and around water. We use Drowning Prevention Week as an opportunity to get into schools and deliver water safety assemblies ahead of the summer holidays. In addition, all our swimming lessons during that week have a water safety focus.’

RLSS UK said the campaign not only supports lifesaving education, but also helps operators reach new audiences, strengthen corporate social responsibility commitments and build closer relationships with schools and community groups.

Facilities can also use Drowning Prevention Week to promote swimming lessons and aquatic programmes, run competitions and fundraising events, and generate local media attention around water safety.

More information and free campaign resources are available at rlss.org.uk/dpw.