11 hours ago
Mother of teen who drowned in sea off Bournemouth beach raises water safety issue in Parliament
The mother of a teenager who drowned in the sea off Bournemouth beach, has travelled to Westminster - to raise the case of water safety in Parliament.
Joe Abbess who was 17, and from Southampton, died in the tragic incident during a day out with friends, alongside 12-year-old Sunnah Khan from Buckinghamshire in May 2023.
The pair got caught in a rip current.
Joe Abbess' mother Vanessa Abbess joined forces with her local MP - Labour's Darren Paffey - to lead a debate on water safety education.
Speaking to ITV Meridian Mrs Abbess said: "They have lessons where they basically lay like starfish on the floor of the classroom.
"That's something that sticks in a child's head.
"So then if they are in a scenario where they are in danger, they think 'oh yeah - float to live'.
"It's as automatic as learning to cross the road, riding your bike - it could be so straightforward and a generation could learn that."
Vanessa Abbess, Joe Abbess' mother
Darren Paffey said 150 children had lost their lives to drowning in the past three years and called for every child to be given the 'opportunity to learn and to live'.
As many people head to the UK's waters during this weekend's warm weather, the MP for Southampton Itchen urged the Government to commit to a national swimming and water safety strategy.
Swimming lessons are included in the current curriculum, with all children expected to be able to swim 25 metres unaided by the time they leave primary school.
But Mr Paffey has argued this does not go far enough, with just 74% of children leaving school with the ability to swim 25 metres, and those from the most deprived areas twice as likely to drown.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Paffey said: 'My major request of Government is that when the national curriculum is updated, following the review currently happening, and is then taught in every school as mandated in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, will the Government use that opportunity to enshrine water safety as a core compulsory part of every child's education?
'The point of the curriculum, we know, is not just to pass exams, it's to prepare our young people for life. And if Labour's mission is to break down barriers to opportunity, then here is just about the greatest opportunity we can offer them – the opportunity to learn and to live.'
He added: 'Will the Government commit to a national swimming and water safety strategy based on up-to-date evidence about children's access across this country to swimming lessons and water safety education?'
Mr Paffey also pressed the Government to create a dedicated water safety ministerial role, as is the case in Wales and Scotland.
He added: 'So I ask, why doesn't England? The National Water Safety Forum and the World Health Organisation have both urged the Government to appoint such ministers, and I echo that call today.'
Referring to the incident at Bournemouth during his speech, Mr Paffey said: 'They were swimming waist high in the sea, as Joe, who was a strong swimmer, had done many, many times before.
They were between the safety flags, in full view of lifeguards, but in an instant, a rip current turned their fun into tragedy.'
He added: 'The coroner reported that this was an accident, a devastating and fatal act of nature. But they also report that rip currents can occur anywhere along the UK coastline at any time.
'How many people, especially children, know that? How many members in this chamber would understand, recognise and rightly respond to a rip current?
'On sunny days like we're enjoying at the moment, many will rightly want to go and enjoy rivers and beaches, but we have to ensure that we are doing everything we can to make sure that they can do that safely.'
Labour's Rebecca Long Bailey urged the Government to 'provide just a little funding to open up these supervised, lifeguarded swim areas to the public for free, and for longer during the summer months'.
'That way, no young person is tempted to risk their life in dangerous areas when they can have full access to a supervised one,' the Salford MP added.
Responding to the debate, education minister Catherine McKinnell said: 'The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which was introduced in December 2024 and is making its way through this House, does put that requirement on all state-funded schools, including academies, to teach the national curriculum, and will, once implemented, extend the requirement to teach swimming and water safety to all state-funded schools.
'Data from Sport England's active life survey reported in 2024 that 95.2% of state primary schools surveyed reported that they do provide swimming lessons, and we do want all pupils to have the opportunity to learn to swim.'
She added: 'We are working to ensure that teaching pupils the water safety code at primary and secondary school will feature in our new RSHE (relationships, sex and health education) statutory guidance, which will be published shortly.'
