Heart of Aquatics: Proud of steps taken as we strive for great experiences for all

Swim England Chief Executive Andy Salmon reflects on the progress made since the publication of the Heart of Aquatics plan – and how the national governing body builds on that in the future.

This month marks two years since the launch of Heart of Aquatics.

Heart of Aquatics was our safeguarding, welfare and culture plan and set out our commitment to help create a better future for everyone involved in our sports.

I wanted to take this moment to reflect on why Heart of Aquatics was so necessary, the progress made in the past two years and our approach to safe aquatics, welfare and culture going forward.

Since joining Swim England last year, I have been struck by how lucky we are to have thousands of brilliant teachers, coaches, officials and volunteers who do amazing things the length and breadth of the country so that our Swim England members can take part in the sports and activities they love – and experience the joy that can come with participating in aquatics.

However, Heart of Aquatics was created in recognition that sadly not everyone taking part in our sports were having those positive experiences and there had been instances of unacceptable behaviours and practices.

As the new Chief executive, I was particularly concerned that for many in our community, Swim England was not viewed as being approachable for people with concerns.

That must change and we are changing.

For me, it all starts by having the right culture, underpinned by a shared set of values, across aquatics.

If we want to shift the culture, then we have to put these values at the very heart of everything we do. Importantly, as the governing body, Swim England must be the change we want to see and demonstrate that we are truly values led in both our words and our actions.

Designed with the community

That starts with me but is equally relevant to each and every one of us involved with aquatics.

It is for that reason that our new strategy, One Swim England, puts safe aquatics, welfare and culture at its very heart.  Given the central focus within One Swim England on these issues, we have taken the decision to encompass the previous Heart of Aquatics plan within the new strategy to ensure there is no dilution in our focus.

This is a strategy designed hand in hand with the community based on conversations with more than 1,000 Swim England members. When I was travelling the country last summer for the roadshows that played such an integral part of the development of the new strategy, many of the best and most significant discussions were around the values and culture we want for our sports and I was struck by the common themes coming from all parts of our community.

Themes around collaboration, integrity and openness came up time and time again. I hope, and firmly believe, that these are reflected in the values that sit at the core of One Swim England.

These very much build upon the three pillars of ‘listening’, ‘supporting’ and ‘resourcing’ that guided the approach set out in Heart of Aquatics.

As a first step to becoming more of a listening organisation we commissioned an independent listening exercise to hear the views of thousands of people from right across the aquatics community, the results of this research were published in March 2024. One theme that came through very clearly was the need for us to continue to listen to the community beyond this piece of research. That’s why I’m so pleased we have created an online community – that has more than 400 participants – and gives ongoing opportunities for members to share their thoughts and views with us. I would encourage people to join and make their voice heard.

To better support the community, we have created a new framework of resources to improve the communication of our policies and guidance, boost engagement and foster inclusivity, leading to greater compliance, fewer misunderstandings and increased trust through clearer, more accessible information.

In early 2024, we launched our Keep it in Your Locker campaign targeting our youth audience on the prohibited use of mobile phones during Swim England club training sessions and competitions. The campaign was supported by an empowering new film which aims to raise awareness of our zero-tolerance approach to this issue and also encourage our members to report any instances to us. The video was created following an extensive consultation with Swim England members aged under 18, parents and coaches plus members of the Swim England Youth Advisory Panel.

We have invested in a digital case management system to allow us to cross reference, analyse trends and monitor safeguarding and welfare information that is reported into our national safeguarding team. This system is integrated with our investigation process and increases our ability to identify risk and potential harm.

In the digital and technology space we’ve heard from members in the Listening Report, as well as at our Values and Vision Roadshows, how disconnected the digital ecosystem is across all of our sports. Whilst technology change isn’t as quick as we’d often like, we are making positive steps with more to come on this in the coming months.

Make a real difference

After updating our safeguarding course to become more bespoke and relevant to safeguarding in an aquatics environment, it is now a mandatory course for everyone 16 and over who works with either children or adults at risk, in a position of trust role. This improvement provides better consistency and quality of delivery.

We are investing more resources than ever into our safeguarding and welfare work and have taken a number of steps including reviewing historical cases to gain recommendations for the future, and strengthening our regulations to make the process for dealing with safeguarding concerns more rigorous. We have also increased the independence of our complaints procedures, including appointing an independent disciplinary officer and setting out clear and transparent procedures for complaint handling.

We should be proud about the actions I’ve mentioned above, and the many more pieces of work that have been undertaken as part of the Heart of Aquatics plan to deliver the highest standards of welfare and safeguarding across our sports. They will make a real difference and I would like to pay a special tribute to the volunteers on the Oversight Committee for their huge contribution in overseeing this work and providing the check and challenge that improved the plan immensely.

But as highlighted already, when it comes to issues as important as safeguarding, welfare and the culture in our sports, even having a plan and all the policies and procedures in the world – as important as they are – will not deliver what our community needs and should expect.

It all comes back to having the right culture and values across all levels of aquatics – and a real partnership based on trust between Swim England and the wider community.

I hope that projects like the Future of Coaching strategy being genuinely co-created with the coaching community shows us ‘walking the walk’ as well as ‘talking the talk’ and the importance of collaboration to us here at Swim England.

Having been in position for a little over a year now, I am more excited than ever at the huge potential of our sports and activities to bring joy and fulfilment to millions of people.

So, as we look back at the progress made since the introduction of Heart of Aquatics, we can be proud of the steps we have made together. Our collective efforts have not only enhanced the safety and well-being of our participants but have also strengthened the unity and integrity of the entire aquatic community. However, this is absolutely not the time for any hint of complacency.

There is much to do to build on the progress of the last two years.

As we deliver the One Swim England strategy, let us continue to work hand in hand to embed the culture and values we want to see across every level of aquatics, ensuring that safeguarding and welfare remain at the forefront of all we do as we strive for great experiences in water. For all. For life.