Lifeguarding Standards

Lifeguarding Standards

How many lifeguards should there be?

The following table is reproduced from the World Health Organisation’s “Guidelines for Safe Recreational Water Environments”, which also contains a wealth of other information on lifeguards and swimming pool standards. In a number of places, such as the table below, it cites the UK Health & Safety Executive’s 2003 guidance –“Managing Health and Safety in Swimming Pools.”

In the United Kingdom, lifeguard numbers may be determined as shown in Table A.1 (Sport England & Health and Safety Commission, 2003).

Table A.1. Lifeguard Numbers per Square Metre of Pool

Approximate pool size (m)	Area (m²)	Minimum number of lifeguards (normal	Minimum number of lifeguards (busy)
20.0 × 8.5	170	1	2
25.0 × 8.5	212	1	2
25.0 × 10.0	250	1	2
25.0 × 12.5	312	2	2
33.3 × 12.5	416	2	3
50.0 × 20.0	1000	4	6

Notes:

1. Where only one lifeguard is on duty, there should be adequate means of summoning assistance rapidly.

2. The ‘water area’ column can be used as a guide for irregular-shaped pools.

The number of lifeguards required for safety can also be calculated based on sweep time and response time. Some lifeguard training organizations, for example, have created general rules for how quickly they believe a lifeguard should be expected to observe a person in distress within their supervision area and how quickly the lifeguard should be able to reach that person. Based on such rules, training and evaluation, appropriate staffing levels can be derived.

An Olympic size pool is 50 x 25 m or 1250 m². As a dozen or so of these exist in the UK not list them? PB