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It’s time to take safeguarding seriously

Caroline Constantine,

Company Director,

Right Directions

I’m disappointed that it has taken the emergence of issues around safeguarding in the media for the country to wake up to the fact that we need formal monitoring and a set of standard regulations put in place.

Even within Sport England’s quality scheme, Quest, where we’ve offered a safeguarding module since 2014, it’s only since the recent scandals hit the news that we’ve seen a rise in the number of facilities choosing to be assessed on this topic. We’ve now made safeguarding – a unit co-written with the NSPCC Child Protection Sport Unit – one of seven compulsory un-scored Quest modules, in order to encourage its uptake.

We’re also adding compulsory safeguarding-specific questions to the overall health and safety declaration assessment for facilities and their resident clubs, so sites must pass these to achieve Quest status. These will determine whether they have a safeguarding policy in place, if they’ve considered DBS in their risk assessment process, if they have up-to-date DBS for staff, if staff know who their safeguarding officer is and how they report suspected issues.

Everyone assumes that safeguarding means protection against dodgy customers but issues can also include staff. Therefore, training needs to be pitched to individual staff levels, to ensure everyone is aware of what signs to look for and the steps in place to report anything problematic.

Some of the bigger operators are leading the way, making the Safeguarding module mandatory as one of their Quest modules.

More sites have sought assessment on safeguarding in the light of recent scandals/ rob van each / shutterstock.com

ASA’s rebrand as ‘Swim England’ has the opportunity to reach a wider audience

Eduardo Ferré,

Founder and MD,,

Swimming Nature

I welcome the rebrand of the Amateur Swimming Association, and the name change that is a stronger, dynamic brand name to professionally represent the country.

I hope that alongside the new look and feel comes a fresh, new approach that truly supports all involved in modernising the sport, particularly at the grassroots level, where there is a desperate need to address the non-swimmer population.

I look forward to seeing how the Swim England strategy will bring actions that engage swimming schools, clubs, teachers, coaches and operators with a common goal.

At Swimming Nature, we always bring an ambitious and innovative way of approaching swimming tuition and I do hope our experience and understanding of the marketplace can add value to the Swim England strategy.

I hope Swim England will be forward thinking with new ideas, change and an ability to build relationships with those delivering the services.

The Swim England brand has potential to bring real change to the sport/ stefan holm / shutterstock.com

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