Swim England to consult with clubs and stakeholders as part of SwimMark review

Swim England is 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.

Swim England announced in February that it was to carry out its first in-depth evaluation of the programme since 2017 and would look at the purpose of SwimMark, the strengths and weaknesses of the current process and what the accreditation should look like in the future.

SwimMark is Swim England’s quality mark for clubs and promotes high standards of governance, sustainability, safe practice and is viewed as a development tool for clubs.

Now, more than two thirds of affiliated clubs along with key stakeholders and our Online Community will be contacted in June to share their views ahead of the second stage of the review.

‘Identifying current and future needs’

Ally Whike, Swim England sport development director, said: “Regular reviews are necessary to ensure that the topics covered within SwimMark and the tools provided to clubs remain relevant and useful.

“The review will also consider where SwimMark sits in the wider portfolio of support and resources provided by Swim England to its clubs and members.

“Understanding the views of Swim England members is a fundamental part of the review process.

“A period of consultation will be undertaken with key stakeholders, including our clubs, Swim England Regions and teams within Swim England who interact with and support our clubs on a daily basis.

“This will ensure the review encompasses a range of viewpoints and will identify the current and future needs of our clubs.

“Once complete, the data and feedback received will then be analysed to enable the second stage of the review to commence.

“This next stage will look at the insight provided by the consultation, identifying key themes and needs.

“This data-driven approach will drive and shape decisions regarding how Swim England can best offer support, guidance and development opportunities to our clubs and members to create and sustain thriving aquatics clubs across the country.”

The review will start on Monday 3 June with a survey being sent to all accredited clubs. The survey will be open for two weeks and we hope to hear from as many clubs as possible. For any queries please contact [email protected].