Swim England has a minimum standard for its affiliated clubs in a bid to show they have the highest standards of safe and effective practice in place.
The Club Affiliation (previously known as ‘Stronger Affiliation’) process has been introduced so new and existing members know clubs are well run and their personnel have the necessary safeguarding checks and appropriate qualifications in place to ensure members’ safety.
Why has Swim England introduced Club Affiliation?
By introducing a Club Affiliation process, Swim England will be able to:
- Support clubs to ensure they are implementing the appropriate governance and meeting minimum operating standards.
- Enhance the experience of club members.
- Demonstrate its commitment to ensuring the safety of all affiliated clubs and members through stronger governance.
- Provide stronger leadership for the sport.
- Strengthen sustainability for future generations
- Align to Sport England’s direction of travel for community sports clubs
What you need to do as a Club
If your club is already ‘SwimMark Accredited‘ you must maintain your SwimMark Accreditation.
For any club without SwimMark (or should their SwimMark lapse), the following 5 pieces of evidence must be provided and approved on an ANNUAL basis – this process is called ‘Club Affiliation‘. Please note: The evidence is submitted via the SwimMark Portal – if you do not already have an account set up, you will need to contact clubdevelopment@swimming.org for access, providing them with your Name, Club, Swim England Number, Email Address and Role within the club.
Within the portal there is a document entitled ‘Club Affiliation Matrix‘ – this provides you with all the necessary information and evidence required to achieve Club Affiliation.
In short, the required evidence is:
- Club Constitution & AGM Minutes
- Letter of approval provided by Swim England North West Ltd Directors
- Copy of the Club’s most recent AGM Minutes
- Diversity Inclusion Action Plan (DIAP)
- Club Welfare Officer Statement of Compliance
- Mandatory signed statement of compliance by the Club Welfare Officer – confirming the club is being run in accordance with Wavepower guidelines.
- Club Chairperson Statement of Compliance
- Mandatory signed statement of compliance that the club is following Swim England Code of Ethics and has role descriptions within the club, and evidence submitted for Club Affiliation is true and accurate.
- Risk Assessments
- Provide a minimum of 3 risk Assessments relevant to the activities of your Club – each risk assessment must contain the name of the individual who undertook the risk assessment and the date completed
- 1 x Pool Based Risk Assessment (training or competition) for each discipline within your club
- 1 x Non-Pool Based Risk Assessment (land training or social event)
- 1 x Club Trip (social event or travel)
- Club Personnel Report
- The Club Personnel Report is a PDF document which must be downloaded form OMS (Online Membership System). The report contain the names of ALL personnel who hold a role within the club, including roles within Governance, Technical Officials, Support Positions, Competition Positions and Coaches and Teachers. Please see the Club Personnel Report Role Descriptor Document for information on which section each role can be found including the requirements for each role (DBS/Safeguarding and/or Qualifications)
Clubs are reminded to ensure they are complying with the current Swim England Coaching Policy at all times – please also refer to the following document containing Frequently Asked Questions relating to the Swim England Coaching Policy.
Failure to maintain either Club Affiliation or SwimMark will result in a club facing either Temporary or Permanent Suspension.
If a club is able to provide all of the above information on an annual basis from when they first complete it, then they will be compliant for Swim England at the time of their membership renewal.
Anyone with any questions about the Club Affiliation process should refer to the FAQs document or, if they require further information, email clubdevelopment@swimnorthwest.org or clubdevelopment@swimming.org in the first instance.
