The actions – how, together, Victoria will improve water safety

Victorian water safety priority areas have been identified across two phases, setting foundations for collaboration then addressing key priorities in prevention and response.

Set the foundation for more effective collaboration

There are a range of sector foundational initiatives and projects which will enable us to work better together, align our priorities, and more effectively deliver our priorities.

Establish better ways of working together through effective governance

Many organisations have a role to play in improving water safety – this sometimes makes it difficult to identify who is ultimately responsible for some key water safety issues, and for effectively coordinating the effort and resources of multiple agencies. A number of committees have been established to improve coordination, including most recently the Water Safety Taskforce, but something more enduring is required.

There is an opportunity to introduce more effective governance arrangements to unlock better ways of collaborating, overcome the limitations of fragmented funding, and improve prevention and response initiatives. This would include the responsibility for implementing this strategy and reporting on progress, supporting the coordinated effort by other agencies to deliver on key priorities. Ideally, these reforms to governance would build on existing arrangements as much as possible.

Targeted actions

• Establish a governance model and supporting arrangements for coordinating the sector‑wide response to water safety issues
• Clarify the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders that contribute to water safety outcomes
• Implement sector‑wide priority setting to help coordinate the effort and direct funding to priority risk, and highest impact, areas

Expand research and data to underpin policy and decision‑making

A robust evidence base and data‑driven decision making must underpin a contemporary public safety strategy. In water safety, we have some of the key pieces in place. For example, we have world‑leading water safety research capabilities, concentrated in Life Saving Victoria, which help us to better understand and mitigate water safety risks. However, much of the data and information required to support good policy‑making remains fragmented across key sector agencies and is hard to access, particularly at the local level.

There is an opportunity to build a much more effective evidence base to improve the efficacy of our programs and ultimately get better water safety outcomes. The consolidation and better connection of datasets will help, particularly if we broaden our focus to include ‘near misses’ and ‘prevention’ activities (i.e. not just fatalities). More effective evaluations of programs that track changes in attitudes and behaviours that impact water safety – not just fatalities – will give us greater insight into what works. A broader‑based whole‑of‑sector research strategy that identifies, and wins funding support for, the key water safety research priorities will help focus research efforts on what matters most.

Targeted actions

• Expand and refine connections between data sources for aquatic‑related injuries and fatalities, to better share key statistics across the sector (e.g. fatal, non‑fatal, near misses)
• Build monitoring and evaluation frameworks to understand how interventions change behaviour and ultimately influence outcomes
• Develop a sector research strategy that helps clarify research priorities as well as partnership and funding opportunities.

Empower communities to better assess, and respond to, water safety risks

Across the sector, agencies and stakeholders recognise and promote the importance of water safety. Many organisations deliver messaging to their users, members, and the public to raise awareness and understanding of water safety risks. This messaging is well intentioned. However, the variety in content, channels and branding across stakeholders dilutes the ‘cut‑through’ of these messages. This can lead to Victorians being unaware of, or underprepared for, life‑threatening water safety risks.

There is an opportunity for the sector to better coordinate and streamline messages, education, and communications. Coordinating simple, repeated messages through consistent channels will more effectively grow awareness in the community. Greater awareness of general risks will promote increased engagement in community‑based water safety education, which will also develop skills and know‑how to better assess, mitigate and respond to local risks (for both people at risk, and those that come to their aid). Lastly, improved local risk communications will provide people with the information they need to make informed decisions around and in water (e.g. Bureau of Meteorology weather warnings, Vic Emergency app notifications, flood warnings etc.)

Targeted actions

• Develop a simple, coherent set of key messages for target cohorts that increases awareness and understanding of water safety risks (i.e. prevention)
• Promote the design and delivery of community education programs to drive shared responsibility and water safety behaviour change
• Deliver timely and localised risk communications to empower communities to make informed water safety decisions.

Coordinate agency effort to address key priorities in prevention and response

Water safety risk is complex and wide‑ranging. There is a lot the sector could do, should do, and should continue to do. In this strategy, four priority areas were identified where sector‑wide coordination of effort will have the most significant impact on reducing water‑related injuries and fatalities. Strategic priorities and associated actions are described below.

Elevate safety in and around open waterways

More and more Victorians continue to participate in water‑related activities at our beaches, regional parks and other areas. While participation has many benefits, it also means more people in the water, and in unfamiliar environments, which increases our collective risk exposure. National and state‑level approaches to mitigate these risks are in place, but incidents ultimately occur at the local level. At the same time, the accountabilities of different local stakeholders (e.g. public land/water managers, infrastructure owners and industries such as tourism) for water safety in their area are unclear.

There is an opportunity to ensure that all Victorians can safely enjoy open water environments by targeting efforts to local areas or ‘hotspots’ where the risk is greatest. This requires tailored local risk assessments, better engagement with communities most at risk (e.g. CALD and people with disabilities) and greater sharing of effective solutions across the sector, facilitated by a clear understanding of who is accountable for safety in different locations and environments. Sustainable resourcing arrangements for responsible local bodies may also need to be considered to support any increased activity.

Targeted actions

• Clarify water safety liabilities and responsibilities for public land/water managers, and others
• Establish more coordinated risk assessment by public land and waterway managers (supported by state‑wide agencies) and controls for both common and target risks (e.g. floods)
• Better engage visitors most at risk, particularly CALD communities, people with disabilities and the often difficult to engage day‑trippers.

Reduce powered and non‑powered recreational vessel related incidents

The popularity of boating and other non‑powered vessels is growing across Victoria, and recent conditions have attracted many new, inexperienced operators. The most common (and most at‑risk) cohort is older men, often more complacent about safety, sometimes with underlying health issues. Current safety messaging, licensing requirements (which are focused on regulations rather than competencies), and other initiatives are not sufficient to address this growing risk.

There is an opportunity to ensure that Victorians going out on the water are better prepared, make risk‑informed decisions and can respond effectively if something does go wrong. This includes ensuring a greater focus on safe trip planning, tailored education for at‑risk cohorts, and the promotion of low‑cost safety technologies that can significantly improve outcomes in an emergency. The sector will leverage existing partnerships to collaborate with boating associations and private sporting clubs, who have direct channels and connections with target cohorts.

Targeted actions

• Improve trip planning and review national boating competencies to better prepare operators for the inherent risks involved in recreational boating
• Increase promotion of new safety technologies that help ‘raise the alarm’ e.g. Personal Locator Beacons
• Tailor education and risk awareness initiatives to target cohorts most susceptible to water safety risks.

Enhance learn to swim and water safety education

Victorian ‘Learn to swim’ programs have a proven track record for teaching kids how to be safe in a pool‑based environment and are a critical part of water safety skills development. However, the sector faces several emerging challenges to maintain and build on this success. Limited capacity to deliver lessons (including a declining workforce) is impeding the recovery from COVID‑19 impacts, other at‑risk population cohorts do not have access to programs, and most drownings happen outside in open water environments (e.g. rivers, lakes and beaches) – where pool‑based skills are not always transferrable or sufficient to be safe.

There is an opportunity to expand successful programs to improve the physical literacy of more Victorians. This includes contextualising teaching to different local environments where the risk is greatest, leveraging existing touchpoints to extend education and skills development to at‑risk parents, families and communities²⁵ (including safe supervision practices), and alleviating constraints on workforce capacity. Innovative solutions should be explored to encourage and enable greater participation, such as integration or co‑location of health services with swimming facilities.

Targeted actions

• Expand existing programs and extend programs to target parents and families, to improve water safety skills, supervision practices, and awareness of limitations
• Enhance opportunities for children to transfer skills and knowledge from pool to open water environments
• Improve recruitment and retention of the learn to swim and water safety education workforce.

Improve incident response

Responding to water‑related incidents can be a complex process, with many organisations fulfilling critical roles across the state. Incidents can involve up to 150 emergency responders across multiple agencies and require the coordination of operations in real‑time, often in extreme conditions. At times, response efforts can become fragmented, with many agencies playing different roles, without coordinated strategic oversight or awareness of each other’s capabilities and limitations.

There is an opportunity for greater cross‑sector collaboration to improve the timeliness and quality of responses to water incidents. Optimal distribution of sector‑wide resources and capabilities (particularly leading up to high‑risk periods), with clear responsibilities, is key to enabling a timely response. This should be supported by drills to prepare for high‑risk scenarios (as per other emergencies such as bushfires) and training to ensure all agency responders have the relevant capability to enact a successful rescue. Continued integration and trialling of new location technologies will also improve response outcomes, particularly for drownings as timing is of the essence.

Targeted actions

• Improve response coordination and management through improved role clarity for different scenarios, coordinated risk‑based resource allocation and more sector exercises
• Enhance local identification for emergencies to reduce response times through new innovations and technologies – such as Advanced Mobile Location (AML), emergency markers, use of cell towers
• Grow the capacity of agency responders to better manage water safety incidents through targeted training and increasing workforce sustainability.

End notes

25 For example, people with, and families of people with, disabilities. Children and adolescents with Austism Spectum Disorders (ASD) are three times more likely to drown than children without ASD (Peden AE, Willcox‑Pidgeon S. Autism spectrum disorder and unintentional fatal drowning of children and adolescents in Australia: an epidemiological analysis (2020))