Support for your club

We firmly believe that our culture should be one of ‘togetherness’. Clubs, club officers, volunteers, coaches, teachers and many more are at the heart of our sports. Together we can make aquatics the best that it can be.

A critical part of the Heart of Aquatics plan is providing the development and support required by all parts of the aquatic community, in particular in the field of safeguarding and welfare, to make sure that change is seen, understood and delivered by all involved in aquatics.

Below you will find links to useful resources for clubs and coaches to support yourself and those in your clubs. These resources will continue to be added to and will be promoted through email newsletters and added to the webpages.

Important links and resources for clubs

• Wavepower
  Wavepower is our comprehensive child safeguarding policy document and sets the standards for Swim England and the aquatic sports. All organisations must adopt Wavepower and it is reviewed regularly to ensure it’s providing the correct guidance.
  Click here to view or download Wavepower
• Welfare and safeguarding resources for clubs
  We’ve collated all useful welfare and safeguarding resources in one place for clubs to be able to download to use within your club. We’ll continue to add to these over the coming months.
  Click here to view our club welfare and safeguarding resources.
• Safeguarding courses/CPDs
  We have several courses/CPDs available:
  • Child Safeguarding Online Basic Awareness course
    This free course is for anyone who comes into contact with children either at a Swim England club or in swimming lessons. It gives athletes, parents, coaches, teachers, volunteers, committee members and technical officials an opportunity to develop their knowledge of safeguarding – and how to respond to any concerns.
    Click here to view more about this course
  • Safeguarding in Aquatics
    This course is for anyone working directly with young or vulnerable people, such as teachers or coaches. The workshop will raise your awareness of signs of abuse, and give you the tools and confidence you need to deal with any issues sensitively, appropriately and effectively should the need ever arise.
    Click here to find out more about this CPD
  • Safeguarding refreshers
    There are 3 refresher options which are:
    • Safeguarding Refresher with Mental Health and Self-harm module
    • Safeguarding Refresher with Mobile Devices in a Sport Setting Module
    • Safeguarding Refresher with Creating a Safe and Proactive Culture Module

  The Swim England Safeguarding Refreshers are open to anyone who has completed the Swim England Safeguarding CPD since 2020. It gives an overview of what safeguarding and child protection means and how to apply that in the practical situation of a club activity. The expectation is that members will complete a three-hour tutor led course as initial training – which is valid for three years – followed by a refresher course three years later so that training can move in a six-year cycle.

• Guidance on weighing aquatics athletes
  Swim England recommend that best practice is not to weigh members under the age of 18 unless they are on a nationally supported talent pathway. Any skinfold or other systems of body composition assessment should not be performed on anyone under 18 unless on a World Class Programme.
  Read the full position statement here.

Clubs can also find useful contacts within the National Safeguarding team here.

You can also get in touch with Helen Weeks, our Sport Governance and Welfare Manager, about any issues or support relating to Club Governance, implementing welfare policies and procedures. Helen and her team are on hand to support clubs, counties and regions to adopt high welfare standards and good governance in line with Swim England regulations. She can be contacted at [email protected].