Swim England Governance Review

In October 2025, Swim England launched a comprehensive Governance Review to “evaluate and shape the organisation’s governance structures and procedures”. The intent is to build confidence, modernise governance, reduce unnecessary complexity and create structures that enable our sports to thrive now and for the long term.

An overview of the Governance Review was given to the Members Forum at the May 2026 annual general meeting (AGM) having previously received support for the direction of travel from the Swim England Board.

May 2026 update

At the end of 2025, the Governance Review Steering Group produced a report with recommendations in five ‘Focus Areas’:

1. Regional and County Governance structures (A),
2. Membership Representation (B)
3. Legal and Structural considerations (C)
4. Board and Committee effectiveness (D)
5. Governance accountability (E)

Read the report in full here.

To deliver on our pledge for transparency, you can view the recommendations of the Steering Group in the report here , including a summary of the five Focus Areas and ‘the case for change’.

In the first half of 2026, the report was reviewed by the Swim England Board and Senior Leadership Team. High level consultation also took place for Focus Areas A and B with Regional Chairs, Regional Boards, County Chairs and County Secretaries, providing an opportunity to share initial feedback.

The Swim England Board supports moving forward with Focus Areas C, D and E and work has begun in earnest in those areas. However, it’s important to stress that Focus Areas A and B are still in an early consultation phase due to their complexities, with no decisions made and more consultation to follow with relevant stakeholders.

Whilst the substantial work of the Governance Review Steering Group has been completed, the project will continue to be supported by members of the Steering Group, to provide strategic guidance. We want to thank this group for their voluntary efforts so far in supporting this project.

Looking ahead

For Focus Areas A and B, we have created the below roadmap to showcase our next steps. The intention in publishing this roadmap is to be transparent about the earliest possible dates for future phases of this extensive review. The roadmap is deliberately ambitious but it will be adapted, if required, as stakeholder consultation progresses to ensure we move at the right pace.

Roadmap for Focus Areas A and B – earliest possible dates

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Roadmap for Focus Areas C, D and E

Work has already started on aspects of Focus Areas C, D and E, based on the recommendations in the report and is likely to continue through 2026 and into early 2027.

We are excited to continue this transformational work to support the One Swim England strategy in its vision for “Great experiences in water. For all. For life.”

We are committed to keeping stakeholders appropriately informed as the review progresses and will seek approval when required through the relevant forums, such as the Members Forum.