The Club Affiliation process

Swim England has a new 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 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 Club Affiliation been introduced?

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

Anyone with any questions about the Club Affiliation process should refer to the FAQs document below or, if they require further information, email clubdevelopment@swimming.org in the first instance.

What you need to do as a Club

If your club is already SwimMark accredited, you just need to maintain your accreditation.

For any club without SwimMark (or should their SwimMark lapse), the following six pieces of evidence need to be provided and approved on an annual basis:

1. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – provide a Diversity and Inclusion Action plan (DIAP) and evidence that club personnel have completed two CPD opportunities (mandatory from 1st November 2023)
2. Club Constitution – ensure club constitution has been checked by the region and is from 2022 Swim England Model Constitution onwards.
3. Welfare Officer statement of compliance – signed statement of compliance by the Welfare officer stating the club is being run in accordance with WavePower guidelines.
4. 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.
5. Risk Assessments – provide Risk Assessments relevant to the activities of your club.
6. Club Personnel Report – 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.

If a club provides 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.

Failure to meet this minimum standard of compliance will result in a club being suspended temporarily or permanently.

For new clubs wanting to affiliate to Swim England and the region, please request a club Affiliation pack from your regional officer. Please also see below the relevant process pack for your club which can be downloaded. This also includes a matrix with requirements.

Swim England run free regular SwimMark and Club Affiliation information sessions which are available to club officers who help with the accreditation process. All club officers are welcome to the online Zoom session and you can book using this link.