When you spend enough time around flood water, drysuits, you get quite intimate with the Flood Rescue Concept of Operations and in December 2025 this document has changed for the first time in just over 6 years.

We deliver a lot of training that correlates with that document so we were a bit anxious and excited at the idea of a new document – in particular the fact the Water Safety Awareness – non rescue module had changed.

The module was previously listed in the 2019 document in Annex H and in the 2025 document as Annex G – but what has actually changed?

We recently skimmed, and waded through both the 2019 and 2025 editions of the guidance to have a quick little look. (We also asked ChatGPT to compare the two documents.)

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1. Training Venue: How wet is your Water?

The 2019 guidance is explicit: training water may include up to Class 2 features.
2025 takes a simpler approach—appropriate hydrology, suitable for wading, but no class rating is specified.

2. Revalidation and Rectification?

The wording regarding recommended annual CPD and the recertification process has been changed. In short – you need to do the course after 3 years to stay qualified and you should do some annual CPD that ‘should cover the following subjects as a minimum: donning, doffing, and care of water rescue PPE’. That’s not a massive changed but a slight language change.

3. Target Group & Language Tweaks

Both versions target workers and volunteers supporting flood response and work around water, but the 2019 version name-drops the Environment Agency explicitly.
The 2025 version generalises this.

Same audience—just slightly different framing.

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So… What does this actually mean?

Not a lot – mainly just which Annex it is in!

The 2019 Annex H and the 2025 Annex G have pretty much the same content just presented slightly differently. If you have staff working around water they still need to be safe. If they’re using aquatic PPE like a lifejacket or buoyancy aid they still need to know how to wear and maintain it.