Changes to the Senior Lifeguard Award - Patrol Captain

What are we doing?
In July 2022 SLSNZ started a consultation process on making changes to the Senior Lifeguard Award - Patrol Captain (PC Award). This was after the National Lifesaving Committee received a paper submitted by the Otago Local Operations Committee.

As this was deemed to be a significant change, a ‘Red Level of Consultation’ was applied to this process. SLSNZ established a ‘Patrol Captain Award - Volunteer Working Group’ and consulted with the membership. Two consultation processes were completed, the first was from July – September 2022 and the second from March – June 2024.

Why are we doing it?
The Patrol Captain plays a critical role in delivering safe beaches across the country; they hold the primary leadership role that interfaces between our organisation and the public, and they maintain oversight of beach management and emergency responses on patrol. With so much relying on what our PC’s provide on the weekends to deliver safe beaches, it is important they hold a level of maturity and are suitably trained. While 18 is still a relatively young age for a position of high responsibility, it is also an age where society recognises people as young adults and entrusts them with a higher level of social responsibility.

SLSNZ believes that as it stands; the lack of policy and direction from SLSNZ on what constitutes best and safe practice for the supervision of a lifeguard patrol and therefore, the standard of beach and patrol management, is an operational risk to SLSNZ, its Clubs & Members.

Final recommendations:
From the feedback received the Working Group & the National Lifesaving Committee now recommend the following changes:

1. The minimum age for a member to complete the Senior Lifeguard Award – Patrol Captain course will be increased to 18 years old from 1 October 2025.

1. There will be the creation of a Vice Patrol Captain Award (VPC), minimum age of 16 – with a structured mentoring program paired with a series of possible online learning modules.
2. The Senior Lifeguard Award – Patrol Captain award content will be updated and reviewed to align better with the key PC responsibilities. A blended learning model will be included with a series of modules possibly including:
  Leadership, Patrol Management & Rostering, Health & Safety, Surf Patrol App use, Risk Assessments, Radio Use, Incident Management and Support, NSOP & CSOPs.
  - The specific modules will be in development over the next 12 months by the SLSNZ Education team and will include input from volunteer subject matter experts (SME’s) from the membership.
3. The PC Award will still have a face-to-face component, and candidates will need to be 18 years old or older to attend.
4. The Surf Lifeguard Award will remain the minimum for the PC Award.
  - However, it will be adjusted so that a member can have held the Surf Lifeguard Award at any point. This means that members who now have a refreshed/current Patrol Support Award can be Patrol Captains. Other prerequisites will also be required to gain the award which will be reviewed before the release of the new structure.
5. The normal Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) will be applied and put in place with no time limit.
  - Once the new award is released, SLSNZ will open a process for bulk RPL from clubs, for members who are existing competent Patrol Captains, but who have not obtained the Patrol Captain award but have the aligned prerequisites.
  - Current qualified Patrol Captains will have their qualification rolled over to the new award automatically.
6. A bi-annual refresher/competency process should be implemented through the Online learning system (no face-to-face refresher)

2. All Patrols will require a qualified Senior Lifeguard Award – Patrol Captain to be on patrol

This recommendation will change SLSNZ Policy Patrol Type, Designation of Areas & Minimum Standards to include the Senior Lifeguard Award – Patrol Captain as a minimum award.
This policy will come into effect 1 October 2026, 1 year after the new Patrol Captain Award is released.
All patrol locations will be required to have a qualified Patrol Captain.

What happens next?

The recommendations were endorsed by the Patrol Captain Award Volunteer Working Group & National Lifesaving Committee in August 2024
The recommendations were sent to the SLSNZ CEO
The SLSNZ Education team has added this to their workflow to start to develop the necessary steps to make the changes to the award.

There will be no immediate change to either the age or minimum standards for the 2024/2025 season.

Timetable:

October 2024	Final recommendation released membership.
November 2024	Development of the modules and course content begins
1 October 2025	Intended release of the new Senior Lifeguard Award – Patrol Captain
1 October 2026	New Policy takes effect.