Swim England
Statement regarding a review of historical cases
12 March 2025Two years ago, Swim England published its safeguarding, welfare and culture plan, Heart of Aquatics, and made a commitment to create a culture and environment in our sports that makes everyone feel safe, included and welcome always.
A review of this important work was recently published and is available here.
Also in 2023, as part of Swim England’s commitment in this area, the national governing body commissioned an independent barrister to undertake an investigation into three separate historical matters.
The matters were investigated separately but concluded under one investigation report, with recommendations provided.
The Swim England board has reviewed and accepted all the recommendations within the report, and they can be viewed by clicking here. It should be noted that Recommendation 5, regarding Swim England’s case management system, has already been implemented.
In line with the recommendations, Swim England is now working to identify an appropriate independent organisation with the relevant safeguarding expertise to conduct a wider desktop review into historical cases – referred to or handled by Swim England between January 2003 and December 2022.
Swim England aims to appoint the organisation and start the review by the end of Spring 2025.
It is estimated the Independent Reviewer will be reviewing approximately 1,500 cases. The Independent Reviewer will be focusing on whether it appears that:
- Swim England did not follow its procedures in place at the time and
- Any procedural flaw led to, or is likely to have led to:
- disciplinary action not being taken when it ought to have been taken, or
- disciplinary action being taken when it ought not to have been taken and
- there is, or is likely to be, a continuing risk of harm to the public (including but not limited to any participants within the aquatics community) as a result of that action or inaction.
This focus on ‘risk of harm’ is a trauma-informed approach to care for and safeguard all those in our community. To this extent, Swim England wishes to acknowledge the ongoing work within our clubs to improve cultures and coaching practices and look forward to supporting this further.
Swim England remains wholeheartedly dedicated to listening, learning and evolving to help create a safe sport for all and will continue to provide updates on this process including the appointment of the Independent Reviewer.
Frequently asked questions
We recently began consultations with a range of recommended independent organisations with the relevant expertise. We aim to make our appointment by the end of Spring 2025.
The independent expert will be conducting a desktop review of all cases handled between January 2003 and December 2022. The review will commence when the independent organisation has been appointed, which is likely to be the end of Spring 2025. It will take some time for the review of all cases within the scope, and this will be a paper-based review only so individuals will not be contacted during this time. We commit to provide more details once the independent organisation has completed the review.
If you wish to raise a new safeguarding concern (even if it happened in the past), please contact us at [email protected] or call 01509 640700 (option 1 for Swim England and then Option 5 for safeguarding). The independent organisation conducting the historical review will not be taking additional information or new evidence, as they are not reinvestigating cases but conducting a desktop review under a specific terms of reference. This will apply across all cases. If you wish to get in contact with us about the review then this can be sent to [email protected]. This inbox will be monitored regularly and we will get back to you if a response is required.
We do have records that span this period, but we acknowledge that until the independent organisation is appointed, and they start reviewing our records, we will not know the full level of detail available for the entire period.
It is important to clarify that we are not reinvestigating cases but conducting a desktop review under a specific terms of reference.
No. We are not reviewing historical cases to see if they followed the procedures set out in the new Regulations (as they would not align to the new Regulations). The independent organisation will check if Swim England followed the Regulations which applied at the relevant time. The change in our Regulations, which came into effect on 3 September 2024, were not retrospective in effect, reflecting the need to balance fairness, certainty and proportionality to all parties involved in matters conducted under previous versions of our Regulations.