Clubs can now start uploading evidence to prove they are meeting Swim England’s Stronger Affiliation process.
Six key requirements need to be completed by clubs for them to ensure they will be compliant for the Swim England changes being introduced at the beginning of next year.
Stronger Affiliation is aimed at the clubs which aren’t currently SwimMark accredited.
Clubs that fail to submit the evidence will see them being suspended temporarily or permanently at the beginning of 2021.
To meet the new regulations, clubs must:
- ensure club constitution has been checked by the region and is from 2018 Swim England Model Constitution onwards
- Provide a signed statement of compliance by the Welfare officer stating the club is being run in accordance with WavePower guidelines
- Submit a signed statement of compliance that the club is following Swim England Code of Ethics and has role descriptions within the club
- Provide Risk Assessments relevant to the activities of your club
- Send in two documents needed for the club personnel record, using information from the Coaching and Teaching Register (i.e. information can be downloaded from OMS, the Online Membership System) to populate the coaches/teachers part of Element 13. Information for remaining club personnel should be added to the current Swim England template (or club’s own document)
- Submit Safeguarding certificate and Time to Listen certificate (from ASA (Swim England) approved course list) for Club Welfare Officer.
Jon Keating, Swim England Club Development Director, said: “We appreciate the situation facing cubs in these challenging times but it’s vitally important they meet the six requirements of the Stronger Affiliation process.
“We would encourage all our clubs that aren’t currently SwimMark accredited to provide the six pieces of evidence by the end of December.
“SwimMark clubs simply need to maintain their accreditation to be compliant with the process.”
A series of webinars have already been held to help clubs complete the process and more dates are being planned in the near future and will be published on the Swim England website and through its social media channels.
To start uploading evidence for the Stronger Affiliation process, clubs need to email [email protected] and Swim England club officers can then activate access to the portal and guide them through the upload process.