How does a club affiliate to the Swim England?
This link will take you to Swim England’s main site where you can find all the information you might need to affiliate your club to Swim England
Clubs will need to complete Club Affiliation shortly after affiliating. Club Affiliation is made up of five key elements that demonstrate that the club has the highest standards of safe and effective practice in place. This will show members that the club is well run and their personnel have the necessary safeguarding checks in place to ensure members safety.
The application pack is currently being updated but will be available soon. Please email Bryony Gibbs with any queries about the affiliation process.
Club Affiliation (formally known as Stronger Affiliation) was bought in by Swim England in 2020. The Club Affiliation process is made up of five key elements which demonstrate that the club has the highest standards of safe and effective practice in place. This will show new and existing members know clubs are well run and their personnel have the necessary safeguarding checks in place to ensure members’ safety. Other sports, including football and tennis, have also introduced similar schemes.
Swim England has a total of 1,045 affiliated clubs and more than half of these (55 per cent) are SwimMark accredited – the national governing body’s quality standard for clubs.
For any club without SwimMark (or should their SwimMark lapse), the following five pieces of evidence need to be provided on an annual basis:
- AGM Minutes and Club Constitution – ensure club constitution has been checked by the region and is from 2022 Swim England Model Constitution onwards and a copy of the minutes from the clubs most recent AGM.
- Welfare Officer statement of compliance – signed statement of compliance by the Welfare Officer stating the club is being run in accordance with Wavepower guidelines.
- Club Chair statement of compliance – signed statement of compliance that the club is following Swim England Code of Ethics and has role descriptions within the club.
- Risk Assessments – provide Risk Assessments relevant to the activities of your club.
- Club Personnel Record – The Club Personnel Report must be downloaded from OMS (Online Membership System) and contain the names of all club personnel in the roles of Governance Technical Officials, Support and Competition positions and all Coaches and Teachers.
Clubs can then submit additional evidence if they wish to become fully SwimMark accredited.
All clubs that are currently SwimMark accredited will not have to complete Club Affiliation as they will have already done so as part of the SwimMark process. However, they will need to ensure they maintain their accredited status.
Club Affiliation is renewed annually during the same quarter each year. The timescales for 2023 are as below;
January submission – evidence to be uploaded for checking by the 12th January
April submission – evidence to be uploaded for checking by the 20th April
July submission – evidence to be uploaded for checking by the 13th July
October submission – Evidence to be uploaded for checking by the 12th October
Clubs will be reminded 3 months before the deadline.
Further information can be found on the Swim England website.
Club Affiliation Contacts
Berkshire & S Bucks, Hampshire & Surrey Clubs – kristie.jarrett@southeastswimming.org
Kent, Oxfordshire & N Bucks & Sussex Clubs- kate.hutchinson@southeastswimming.org
FAQ’s
Please see here for the frequently asked questions document
Teacher/ Coach Register
The teacher/coach register was launched in January 2019. All clubs must add the necessary information to the Swim England Online Membership System.
This register is now used for SwimMark evidence of personnel records and will be used going forward for the Club Affiliation process. Missing information can be updated as per the information on the attached document Common Questions Answers (Coaches and Teachers) (002)
Club personnel can upload their own safeguarding certificates through Swimming Results, the user guide can be found here Uploading_safeguarding_certificates_guide.
Online Membership User Guides
For both SwimMark and Club Affiliation, clubs will soon be required to submit reports from the Online Membership System for both teacher/coaches and other club personnel. There are two guides available to support clubs with this which can be found below.
