Jenny, the club's Welfare Officer

Hello Weston-super-Mare Swimming Club members, volunteers and parents/guardians.

My name is Jenny, and I am the Welfare officer. You can reach me on [email protected] if you have any concerns or want to reach out.

There are just a few things I wanted to communicate with you. Firstly, we will send out an updated code of conduct to all of you soon. Please read this and go through this with our members. On the subject of conduct, can we please speak to all of our members and remind them that we are an inclusive club and must respect our coaches, teachers, swimmers, and players alike? Can we all please be welcoming and respectful in how we speak to each other and equally about each other to our fellow members?

I also just wanted to reiterate the Swim England mobile phone policy, which states there is to be no mobile phone usage in the changing room area, this is taken from Swim England’s Wavepower – safeguarding policy and procedures.

‘Wavepower’s changing room policy prohibits all mobile phone or device use in a changing area during a Swim England regulated activity.’

On a separate note, please can we all make sure that our members are wearing season-appropriate clothing as it is now getting colder and that we are also using the changing rooms before/after lessons to get changed and not doing this in communal areas unless they are pool ready when they arrive.

With the nights drawing in and it getting darker earlier now, we would like to remind parents that they should be collecting their children/young person from inside the building by the changing rooms/spectator area, this is a safeguarding request as we wish to minimise any potential concern.

Kind Regards

Jenny Eaton, Welfare Officer

 

 

Wavepower: Swim England's safeguarding policy and procedures

Wavepower is Swim England’s safeguarding policy and procedures document.

Its aim is to ensure everyone is able to enjoy our sports and aquatic activity in a safe, positive and enjoyable environment in line with current legislation, regulations and guidance.

All Swim England affiliated clubs and organisations must adopt Wavepower and the current version can be downloaded below.

At the beginning of 2024, an updated version of Wavepower was published.

This is part of Swim England’s commitment to create a culture in our sports and activities which makes everyone feel protected, included and welcomed – and that the safety, welfare and wellbeing of all participants is ingrained throughout our affiliated clubs and organisations.

The video below discusses what Wavepower is, why it is such an important document and explains the key changes that have been introduced in 2024. Those key changes have also been summarised on this page.

Adult safeguarding

Currently, Wavepower is the Swim England safeguarding policy and procedures document for child safeguarding and did not cover the important, and developing, area of adult safeguarding. For the first time, Wavepower will include an adult safeguarding policy as well as directions on reporting concerns at adults at risk of harm.

Safeguarding changing rooms

Wavepower’s changing room policy prohibits taking photographs with a camera or mobile device in changing areas. This will change in the updated version of Wavepower to prohibit all use of a mobile phone or device in a changing area during Swim England regulated activity.

Approved training

From 2024, anyone who holds a role which Wavepower states requires safeguarding training will need to complete the Swim England Safeguarding course. This is a bespoke course which covers the important and unique aspects of safeguarding in an aquatic environment.

Safer recruitment

Wavepower’s update will clarify Swim England’s position on safer recruitment of paid roles in regulated activity, and it will be mandatory to follow the full safer recruitment actions contained in this policy.

The role of the welfare officer

It will no longer be ‘best practice’ but mandatory that the welfare officer of an organisation is not related to, or in a close relationship with, either the chair/owner/proprietor, or a coach/swimming teacher of the organisation they are the welfare officer for.

You can download the fully interactive Wavepower. It is in PDF format. Alternatively, you can read it online below. If it doesn’t load after a few seconds please refresh the page.

If you have any questions regarding Wavepower, or the upcoming changes to it, please email [email protected].

Changelog

Wavepower version 2, effective from 3rd September 2024
  • Updated ‘Responsibility for safeguarding within Swim England’ section to amend the role description of the Case Management Group, and to add details of the new Disciplinary Officer role.
  • Updated ‘Contact Details’ section to include Disciplinary Officer.
  • Amendment to the “Abuse is…” text in the ‘Definitions of Abuse’ section.
  • Updated the ‘Reporting a concern about a child at risk of harm’ section to include reference to the Disciplinary Officer role.
  • Updated the ‘Adult Safeguarding’ section to include reference to the Disciplinary Officer role.
  • Updated the ‘Recording, information sharing, and confidentiality’ section to include reference to the role of Judicial Committees.
  • Updated Codes of Conduct to include a reference to reporting abuse, bullying, or unacceptable behaviour, even if the individual is just a witness.

Download (pdf)
 

Further guidance on welfare

As well as Wavepower there are other welfare publications and resources clubs may find useful.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

  • Please see our dedicated FAQs page for further information.

NSPCC and CPSU Guidance