Children were placed at risk yesterday with Sport England considering cutting funding to swimming after an 8 per cent drop in participation levels over the past year.

With 245,000 fewer people taking part in the sport, according to the latest Active People’s Survey, Sport England said they were concerned with the latest figures with a decision to cut funding to be taken in March.

However, with statistics from the National Water Safety Forum’s Water Incident Database showing that in 2013 0-19s accounted for 12 per cent of deaths (46), of which more than half were teenagers aged 15 to 19 (27), it is argued that there should be a larger focus on getting more kids into the pool and that a decrease in money could be detrimental to the safety of children.

A cut in funding could lead to an increase in the number of children who fail to learn to swim, something the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is keen to avoid as they believe all children should be taught to be safe in and around water.

Speaking exclusively to the Star, RoSPA’s leisure safety manager David Walker said: “I’m not really sure why there is a fall in participation but our first position is that swimming and water safety are absolutely essential to drowning prevention.

“Equipping kids with the knowledge, skill and behaviour around water is absolutely fundamental.”

Walker accepts that there is a fair argument regarding value for money but that is only up to a certain point.

“I don’t think anybody is disputing that they need to turn the figures around and the civil services that we speak to, everybody sees that learning to swim itself is just a good thing.

“But swimming and water safety is slightly different from other sports because it does give this lifesaving outcome. We have to be really careful.

“Nobody should get a blank cheque but at the same time we need to consider those wider issues. Swimming pools are a real safe environment, it’s open water safety where people get in trouble.”

Sport England’s chief executive Jennie Price blamed swimming’s failure to modernise and embrace the digital age as the reason for the drop in numbers but Labour’s shadow minister of sport Clive Efford believes the fault lies with David Cameron.

He said: “David Cameron’s government is squandering the golden sporting legacy it was handed.

 “The fact that participation (in all sports) is down overall three years since the Olympics and down by nearly half a million in the last year for those on lowest incomes, shows the government has no coherent plan to increase participation in sport whatsoever.”