Swim England monthly updates 2024

The Swim England Board meets around six times a year and is made up of representatives from across the sport and physical activity sector. Members have background in legal, human resources and finance. The Swim England Board members are:

Richard Hookway (chairperson), Caroline Green (senior independent non-executive board member/deputy chairperson), Neil Booth, Alison Breadon, Brian Havill, Aysha Kidwai, Raj Kumar, Andy Salmon, Barry Saunders, Bernard Simkins, Katie Walcott-Greenwood, Joan Wheeler.

Nick Parkes urged people considering a fitness drive as part of a new year resolution to get active in the water – as it can be a ‘lifesaver’.

The 62-year-old had to be resuscitated after suffering a cardiac arrest during the Swim England Open Water National Masters Championships but his remarkable recovery had been attributed, in part, to his active lifestyle.

Swim England launched a refreshed version of its safeguarding policy and procedures document, Wavepower.

The new digital edition contained a number of important changes which aim to ensure everyone is able to take part in aquatic sports and activities in a safe, positive and enjoyable environment.

There were five key changes around adult safeguarding, safeguarding changing rooms, approved training, safer recruitment and the role of the welfare officer.

At the same time, the Swim England Handbook was also updated to reflect a number of updated regulations.

Two volunteers with Swim England’s Ripple Effect project were shortlisted for a national award.

Allyson Irvine and Ryan Carstairs are both Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Community Sport and Recreations Awards 2024 finalists in the Inspiration of the Year category.

Members of Swim England’s water polo talent centre took part in the Habawaba Spain International Tournament in Barcelona.

A total of 41 athletes and nine members of staff, coaches and team managers headed to the event which saw three Swim England teams take part. 

Meanwhile, the first Swim England Diving Team Z (Zone squad) camp of 2024 saw divers from seven clubs across England and Scotland come together for an ‘exciting weekend of learning’.

A total of 116 U16 athletes also took part in the inaugural Swim England Water Polo Talent Centre Festival at Liverpool’s Aquatics Centre.

Dorset became the first county to meet the standards of Swim England’s Governance Code for counties.

The code sets out the requirements counties must achieve in order to show they are demonstrating good governance and have necessary and up-to-date documentation in place.

Swim England’s volunteering team were hoping to recruit more people in 2024 in a bid to make aquatic sports grow and thrive.

Andrea Startin, the national governing body’s volunteering and development coordinator, said: “With so many interesting and varied volunteering opportunities, helping out in whatever capacity is a great way to participate in aquatics, have fun and potentially support your club or athlete to achieve their full potential.”

A number of the Swim England Performance Squad took part in the week-long training camp in Lanzarote.

The Barcelo Lanzarote Active Resort hosted the group as they focused on their preparation for April’s British Swimming Championships which play a key role in selection for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The Aquatic Activity and Swimming for Health eLearning resource, which has been described as ‘exceptionally helpful and practical’, was made available to access for anyone in the UK.

Developed in partnership by Swim England, the Aquatic Therapy Association of Chartered Physiotherapists (ATACP), University of Nottingham and NHS England, the resource raises awareness of the benefits of aquatic activity on health and wellbeing.

Swim England launched a brand new financial forum, aimed at supporting the success and sustainability of aquatic clubs.

The forums come as a follow up to the success of Swim England’s Club Financial Toolkit and last year’s Financial Sustainability webinars.

The World Championships were held in Doha at the beginning of February with Swim England members enjoying considerable success representing Great Britain.

Kate Shortman and Isabelle Thorpe won Great Britain’s first-ever artistic swimming World Championships medal after finishing second in the technical duet final.

They followed that up with a bronze medal in the free duet final to book a place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Thorpe hoped their achievements would encourage youngsters to take up the sport.

She said: “I just hope it’s inspiring some young girls and boys back at home, we can lead the way for some of them and that there’s a bright future for artistic swimming in the UK.”

For the first time in more than a decade, Great Britain’s women’s water polo team competed in the World Championships and they finished a creditable 11th following victories over South Africa and Kazakhstan.

Britain’s swimmers won seven medals during the eight days of action, with both Laura Stephens and Freya Colbert topping the podium in the Women’s 200m Butterfly and 400m Individual Medley respectively.

The diving team also secured a competition-best seven medals, beating their previous best of six from Budapest two years ago.

Tom Daley, Scarlett Mew Jensen, Daniel Goodfellow and Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix claimed Britain’s only diving gold as they triumphed in the Mixed Team event.

Swim England confirmed it was to carry out a ‘thorough’ review of its SwimMark accreditation programme and would be seeking the views of affiliated clubs, regions and key stakeholders. 

It would be the first in-depth evaluation of the programme since 2017 and was being carried out in light of feedback from the sport.

Stone and District Swimming Club have shared their positive experiences of completing Swim England’s Club Health Tracker.

The tracker, developed alongside Sporting Insights, is available for all aquatics clubs and supports them with six areas of club development.

Ian Hall, Stone and District Swimming Club chair, said: “After completion of the tracker, Swim England got in touch and their approach was extremely helpful, with them offering a series of potential options.”

The English School Swimming Association’s Duke of Cambridge Cup has been hailed as a ‘real triumph’ after Swim England’s Talent Centre athletes were invited to join the competition for 2024.

The event – which took place at the Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry – welcomed 60 athletes from the Swim England Talent Centre programme alongside another 60 which were nominated from schools across the country.

Leeds Beckett University was seeing the ‘life-changing’ effects for some participants after being the first university pool to achieve Swim England’s Water Wellbeing accreditation.

The pool joins a cohort of around 180 sites to now be Water Wellbeing accredited.

Swimming and Health Commission member Professor Scarlett McNally has used the pages of the BMJ to send a clear message to the medical community about the importance of swimming for the body, mind and communities.

“Swimming and other aquatic activities have immense benefits for health and wellbeing,” said Professor McNally.

Jane Nickerson paid tribute to Swim England’s bank of ‘passionate and positive’ volunteers as she retired after a ‘memorable’ 25 years with for the national governing body.

She said working in an environment ‘which truly impacts on the lives of others and provides so much enjoyment to participants means so much.’

Jane was replaced as chief executive by Andy Salmon, who joined Swim England from a similar role at British Triathlon.

Swim England published in full the findings of independent research commissioned as part of its pledge to create a better future for everyone involved in its sports.

The listening report captured responses from past and present Swim England members and was written by award-winning company The Behavioural Architects

Chairman Richard Hookway said: “We are sorry that the culture within aquatics has fallen short of what we strive for and that this has resulted in negative experiences within our community.

“As part of this, we take the views expressed about Swim England within the report extremely seriously. We are committed to change.”

Swim England joined a ‘powerful’ coalition of more than 40 leading national governing bodies and environmental organisations to urge politicians to allow greater access to ‘nature rich spaces’.

The national governing body supported the Outdoors for All manifesto, which was presented to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Stephen Barclay.

Swim England inducted Mercedes Gleitze – the first British woman to swim the English Channel – into its Hall of Fame on International Women’s Day.

Mercedes was only the sixth person to conquer the channel and her induction was confirmed on the day a film, Vindication Swim, which celebrated her life and remarkable achievement was released nationwide.  

The first Swim England event of 2024 was held in Crawley with 170 athletes from 21 clubs taking part in the GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Age Group Championships.

Six different events were held over the two-day competition, which were judged on the new artistic swimming rules for the first time.

At the event, artistic swimming stalwart Hannah Secher was ‘grateful’ to join the prestigious list of Mary Black Award winners.

Some of the nation’s current and future stars enjoyed a three-day pathway camp at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre which will provide them with a ‘great experience’ ahead of their upcoming events.

Members of Team Z then took part in a camp at Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre to support their preparation for the upcoming British Elite Junior Diving Championships and Swim England National Age Group Championships.

A new course to help swimming coaches play a key role in boosting the number of blind and partially-sighted people participating in aquatics was launched.

Swim England worked alongside leading sight loss charity British Blind Sport and UK Coaching to help create the bespoke online training package.

Andy Salmon gave his first interview since becoming Swim England chief executive.

He urged the aquatics community to get behind the national governing body’s ‘commitment to change’ – and issued a sincere apology to anyone who had endured poor experiences or inappropriate behaviour.

It was announced more than 300 facilities were to receive a share of a £60 million fund to help swimming pools become more energy efficient.

However, while Swim England welcomed the investment from the second phase of the Swimming Pool Support Fund, it said the fact local authorities applied for four times the amount available showed the ‘scale of the problems facilities still face’ and called for a ‘long-term plan to help deliver the network of sustainable facilities we need for the future’.

A number of athletes from Swim England’s Team Y and Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) programme took part in the 8 Nations Youth Diving Meet in Turin, Italy.

Swim England has welcomed new guidance which offers ideas to ensure youngsters receive high-quality and inclusive PE, sport and physical activity at school.

Swim England supported the launch of Pride Swim 2024 at the Speedo Aquatics GB Swimming Championships.

Pride Swim 2024 aims to connect the LGBTQ+ community and allies together through swim sessions across the country.

Mike Hawkes, Swim England head of diversity and inclusion, said: “It is imperative our sports champion inclusivity and equality. By working together, we can help to connect the LGBTQ+ community and their allies through aquatics and raise the visibility of LGBTQ+ members within our sports.”

A new bespoke Safeguarding in Aquatics course was launched by Swim England.

It covers ‘the important and unique aspects’ of safeguarding in an aquatic environment – and has been specifically designed to help people understand their role, duty and responsibility in relation to keeping everyone in their organisation safe and protected from harm.

Included on the course is an in-depth look at child protection and, for the first time, adult safeguarding and how to identify the types, signs and symptoms of abuse and harm.

Carrie Ryan was appointed to the Swim England Board as a trustee, independent non-executive director and chair of Swim England Trading Limited.

The vice-president and global head of strategy and business development at Dutch-based investment group Prosus replaced Raj Kumar, who has stepped down from the role to pursue an overseas career opportunity.

Carrie said: “As a keen swimmer, it’s a huge honour to be appointed to the Swim England Board.”

A campaign was launched to highlight the vital community value of swimming teachers as Swim England research revealed that an estimated 667,000 children across the UK will miss out on lessons due to an instructor shortage.

As part of the latest Love Swimming campaign, Swim England and a collaboration of leisure partners were calling on people to consider the benefits of switching career paths and taking on a more fulfilling profession.

Swim England business engagement director, Rebecca Cox, added: “This is a chance to celebrate the incredible work swimming teachers across the nation do.”

More than 20 English athletes were named in the Team GB pool and marathon swimming squads for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The 33-strong team included seven Olympic champions and nine Olympic medallists.

Tributes were paid to former Amateur Swimming Association President and Swim England Hall of Fame inductee Alan Donlan, who died at the age of 87.

The national governing body was also saddened to hear of the passing of Anne Reah, who was the President in 2017.

West London Penguin and City of Manchester were both victorious in the GoCardless Swim England Water Polo National Age Group Championships open and female categories respectively.

In the U19s competition held at Gloucester’s GL1 leisure centre, Cheltenham claimed the female title, while Worthing triumphed in the open competition.

Swim England announced a series of Values of Vision Roadshows would be held across the country in May, June and July.

The roadshows would give members the opportunity to help shape the organisation’s future direction and culture.

Chief executive Andy Salmon said: “The events will help create a clear vision for our sports and lead to a robust set of values that will be deeply relevant, meaningful and specific to the aquatics community.”

New figures released in Sport England’s Active Lives survey showed more people returned to the pool in the last 12 months.

Almost 4.2 million people took part in swimming activities at least twice a month between November 2022 and November 2023 – a rise of more than 400,000 on the previous year’s statistics.

Salford Synchronised Swimming Club won their first-ever Redwood Trophy at the GoCardless Swim England Artistic Swimming National Championships.

Around 150 artistic swimmers took part in the event at Nottingham’s Harvey Hadden Sports Village.

Swim England appointed Richard Palmer-Jones to its Sport Operations Committee.

Richard, who has an extensive background in sport both inside and outside of aquatics, replace Ian Mackenzie whose four-year term on the committee had come to an end.  

A new engaging video campaign to help stop younger members falling foul of a key safeguarding policy change.

The Keep it in Your Locker 60-second film was created following an extensive consultation with Swim England’s members aged under 18, parents, coaches and member’s of the national governing body’s Youth Advisory Panel.

It includes the key messages of changing rooms are changing, you wouldn’t like it if it was you and leave the fun for the pool – as the film’s stars are all seen putting their phones in their lockers to avoid breaching Wavepower.

A parliamentary debate on the provision of swimming and water safety lessons in primary schools was welcomed by Swim England.

John Cryer MP, Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead who is vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming, told the debate that ‘the importance of swimming and water safety lessons in school should never be underestimated’.

Ryan Carstairs, a Swim England Ripple Effect volunteer, was awarded Great Britain Deaf Swimming Club’s ‘Andrew Rees Award’ for his volunteer work within the sport.

Swim England welcomed the creation of 27 new designated bathing water locations.

All 27 of the new sites were selected following a two-week consultation earlier this year – which Swim England lobbied in support of – and include more than a dozen river sites.

The Swim England Online Community was launched which would put members at the heart of the national governing body’s decision-making process.

Hundreds of members would be given the chance to have their say and help shape future opportunities and experiences.

New proposed statutory guidance which would ensure schools must teach children about water safety was hailed by Swim England as an ‘important and welcome step’ in helping to keep youngsters safe.

Swim England held the first of its Values and Vision Roadshows, with chief executive Andy Salmon encouraging all members of the aquatics community to attend.

Everyone Active was awarded Swim England’s Learn to Swim Accreditation for all 140 of its leisure centres delivering swimming lessons. 

The new two-year accreditation means the charitable leisure trust will, in 2026, have held the quality mark for ten years in a row.

Swim England announced it was to carry out a consultation with clubs and key stakeholders in June as part of its comprehensive review of the SwimMark accreditation scheme.

The insight gathered will help drive and shape decisions on how Swim England can best offer support, guidance and development opportunities to its clubs and members.