Almost 600 leisure centre staff have been trained to help dementia sufferers take part in swimming as part of flagship scheme launched by Swim England.

Swim England – formerly known as the Amateur Swimming Association – launched its dementia-friendly swimming programme in 2015 in a bid to improve the lives of some of the 800,000 people living with the condition in the UK.

Talking at the Healthy Stadia Conference, Swim England health and wellbeing manager Jamie Hooper revealed that since the launch 557 members of staff have completed Dementia in Leisure Environment training with the support of the Alzheimer’s Society.

An additional 185 have become Dementia Friends – a nationwide initiative aimed at “changing people’s perceptions of dementia”.

As a result of the training, 45 pools are now delivering dementia friendly session. A further 104 are expected to follow suit.

To increase the number of people with dementia swimming, Swim England has developed partnerships with housing associations and health organisations.

The governing body is also working with charitable organisations such as the Alzheimer’s Society, Age UK and local Dementia Action Alliances.

“It’s about raising the profile of swimming and physical activity, especially to those living with people with dementia,” said Hooper.

However, the increase in people with dementia swimming has not been without its challenges for the centres offering provision.

Hooper explained to delegates that an extensive piece of work had been done to improve factors such as navigation, signage, noise, unhelpful lighting, fear of slipping, the number of available training facilities, poor use of colour and contrast and lack of personalisation within leisure centres.

He said that working with private operators was slightly more challenging as it was “hard to make them change if the didn’t see the financial benefits”.

But that stance has softened slightly, he added, after the publication of the government’s Sporting Future strategy, which has mental and physical health as a key desired outcome for sport and physical activity.