Information for Clubs
Welcome to our information page for clubs. We also welcome information on your club in our Somerset ASA Club listings.
A representative from each Club can maintain Directory pages to display Club information, contact details and athlete profiles. Contact Mike Coles, County Chair, (Contact Details) for more information.
Club membership officers are reminded to keep the OMS up to date when someone leaves the club. This helps to ensure communications go to the correct people.
Remember to sign up for future Secretary and Membership Secretary Workshops organised by Swim England South West.
Club Affiliation (formerly known as ‘Stronger Affiliation’)
View details of the Affiliation process for new clubs / school Clubs from 1 Oct 023.
View changes to the evidence requirements for SwimMark and Club Affiliation.
Due to the large numbers of clubs due to reaffiliate in January, Swim England South West has run online Club Affiliation / SwimMark workshops to go through the necessary requirements.
Swim England is still hosting webinars to guide clubs through this process. We publicised booking details for:
- 23 Nov 2022 – 7pm
- 20 May 2023 – 6.30pm
- 26July 2023 – 6:30pm
- 14 August 2023 – 6.30pm
Membership Data
Please ensure that your workforce Safeguarding and DBS are kept up to date along with their qualifications. By doing this regularly it will be easier to submit element 13 when renewing SwimMark / Club Affiliation for your club.
The South West Regional Office receives a lot of calls and emails from members saying that their qualifications and courses are not showing on the Membership Check page. In many cases this is because they have not set their Data Protection Choices to allow their details to be visible. Please contact the Regional Office for some instructions on how to alter these settings. Members can also check their qualifications on OMS, although this will obviously not be visible to anyone else other than their club administrators.
Club membership officers are reminded to keep the OMS up to date when someone leaves the club. This helps to ensure communications go to the correct people.
Club Constitutions
All constitutions should now be amended to take into account the latest updated model constitution.. If your Club’s isn’t, the model is available here: https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/becoming-a-members-club/.
If your club is nearing their constitution needing reviewing then please send the current and proposed versions to swconstitutions@gmail.com and the Regional team will look at this for you. Please ensure their review has been completed and is compliant before proposing any revised constitution for adoption by your club members.
Setting up a Club
View Swim England guidance on governance such as policies and constitution, as well as decisions on membership and affiliation.
Club Role Descriptions
Click here for Swim England guides to the most common aquatics club roles These documents are to help clubs support volunteers in carrying out their duties at a Swim England club. Each guide contains:
The portal is open for clubs to upload evidence and complete the process to avoid the risk of being temporarily / permanently suspended from Swim England membership.
Requirement for Club Diversity and Inclusion Action Plans
From Nov 2023, all of Swim England’s 946 clubs will have to submit a Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan as part of their requirements to remain affiliated. Read more.
Please note if a club doesn’t renew their SwimMark accreditation, it still needs to complete and meet the requirements for Club Affiliation. If this is not done, the Region is required to suspend it with immediate effect.
There’s never been a more important time to consider ways to develop your club. The Club Support Hub on the Swim England website offers a wealth of information and resources to start, manage and develop your aquatics club.
- An introduction to the role.
- The types of skills and experience required.
- Role responsibilities and level of commitment.
- What support you can expect from us.
- What you will gain from the experience.
Demographics
Sport England’s in-depth research is split it into a number of different demographics to help you understand why some people are less active. Click on any of the groups here to discover the reasons behind their activity levels.
Networks
A number of Somerset Clubs work with others in their respective City of Bristol / Taunton / Team Bath AS networks to maximise resources and investment and secure defined athlete pathways within each network.
Some examples of areas clubs within networks have been working on:
- Training courses and workforce development
- Maximising pool space
- Attending training camps
- Coach mentoring
- Local funding opportunities
For more information about Club Collaboration visit our Development section
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Being Inclusive
Being inclusive enables you to meet the needs of your participants, volunteers and communities and create an environment where everyone feels welcome. This Club Matters animation takes you through the six characteristics of inclusive organisations and helps guide you to further support. For more information on Creating an Inclusive Culture, please click here.
Inclusive Club Guide
This Swim England resource will help affiliated clubs ensure their activities are more accessible, diverse and inclusive. The Guide aligns with Swim England’s 10-year strategy, Access Aquatics, to tackle inequalities and remove barriers which currently prevent participation. It includes a range of supporting resources and tools plus topics on inclusion, inclusive volunteering, disability, ethnic diversity, LGBTQ+ and mental health. Read why creating an inclusive environment is so vital.
Inclusion Training Programme
Somerset ASA and local active partnership SASP strongly believe in the importance and value of sport and physical activity, and how it has the potential to transform lives. SASP’s new ‘Clubs for All’ training can empower your club to support young people whose additional needs act as a barrier to taking part. Read why and book place(s) for your representative(s) here.
SASP’s ‘Somerset Moves’ Strategy – Virtual Meetings
View events and book your places at www.sasp.co.uk/events.
SASP Learning and Evaluation Videos
Please click on the in-video icon to select a topic video to view from the playlist.
– Video 1: What is evaluation?
– Video 2: What are the types of evaluation?
– Video 3: Why is evaluation important?
– Video 4: What resources are needed for evaluation?
– Video 5: What is an evaluation framework?
– Video 6: What is a theory of change?
– Video 7: What is the difference between data, information, and insight?
– Video 8: How can we use data, information and insight in our work?
New Club Sessions
Clubs up and down the country are considering ways to diversify their offer, bring new participants into their club, and create links with local schools, colleges and universities.
This could include new sections for disability, masters, learn to swim or Swimfit
- Satellite sessions (also known as Satellite clubs) are a new Sport England initiative, aimed at attracting a new type of participant into community clubs as well as welcoming back ex-competitive swimmers. We believe that Satellite sessions can begin to address drop-out from clubs. There are two potential forms of satellite sessions for Aquatics, both aiming to grow club membership:
- Youth Satellite Sessions – these target the 11-25 years age group and can bridge the gaps between school, college, university and community sport and provide new opportunities for young people to create lifelong sporting habits
- Pop-Up Swimfit Satellite Sessions – the new Pop-Up Swimfit model allows clubs to use Swimfit as an additional offer for the student or adult casual swimmer.
Wavepower
Please note an updated version of Wavepower was published on 3 Jan 2024. The policy and changes introduced are available to view here. All Swim England affiliated clubs and organisations are required to adopt Wavepower.
Please read through for updates including revised regulations on safeguarding and welfare, the new club complaints process and the revised disciplinary process.
We publicised booking details for May online sessions which cover Safeguarding and Governance topics for coaches.
Coaches Forum
Groups are brought together throughout the country to share knowledge and best practice, discuss and influence regional competition structure and work toward a clear understanding of the swimmer pathway in the region. For more information on coaching please click here.
Download the Swim England Coaching Plan 2023 to 2025 which was launched in Mar 2023 and will support coaches across all of the aquatic disciplines and links closely with Sport England’s ‘Uniting the movement’ and ‘Coaching Plan 2.0’ strategies.
View the Swim England Coaching Policy which was sent out to Clubs early in 2022. Clubs and Coaches, please make sure you are aware of the areas the policy covers and are operating within these guidelines when delivering your Club activities.
Learning Aids
This set of resources have been created by the University of Bath to help local community groups upskill their members in a variety of fields.
Anti-Racism Statement
Swim England is committed to tackling racial inequalities to create a more welcoming environment for everyone. Follow this link for its statement (1 Apr 2022) which includes Swim England’s Anti-Racism Principles and Action Plan. Should you have any questions about this statement, or Swim England’s principles, please contact equality@swimming.org.
Anti-Doping
Clean sport depends on everyone having the know-how to speak out when something’s wrong. Speak to UK Anti-Doping in confidence – no matter how small. protectyoursport@reportdoping.com.
Swim England passionately believes that all athletes have the right to compete in all aquatic sports knowing that they, and their competitors, are clean. If you are a member of Swim England, then the anti-doping rules apply to you, regardless of what level you participate at. View Swim England Ant-Doping page for more information.
CPSU Webinars
In this video playlist on youtube, the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit provide information on safeguarding for Club Welfare Officers.
Digital Marketing Hub
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLYltMQNfamJ27hRbXcgYXvH8w2KW5T7uM
View top tip videos from CIMSPA’’s Digital Marketing Hub to help people in sport & physical activity improve their marketing.
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