Co-creation of the future of Coaching

A huge thank you to everyone who has taken time to complete the Co-creation of the Future of Coaching survey.

There is still time to get involved in the process if you haven’t already done so – and Swim England are keen to hear from coaches at all levels across all aquatic disciplines.

Participants can also share their views on what qualities they value in a coach and what makes a great coaching environment.

The views and opinions will help shape a new coaching strategy to be published by Swim England later this year.

Have your say by clicking on the survey links:

Coaches: bit.ly/SEcoachsurvey

Participants and parents: bit.ly/SEparticipantsurvey

Alternatively, coaches can also book a place on one of 16 workshops being held at eight venues across the country during March.

Face-to-face workshops

These are for coaches to attend and will be held across the country during March, with the sessions taking place at two times – 1.30pm to 4pm and 5.30pm to 8pm – at each venue.

East Region Workshop

Thursday 20 March: Holiday Inn Lakeview, Bridge Rd, Impington, Cambridge CB24 9PH

Workshops in the other Regions

North East - Wednesday 5 March: Days Inn by Wyndham Wetherby,

North West - Thursday 6 March: Macdonald Hotel and Resorts, Preston

East Midlands - Wednesday 12 March: SportPark, , Loughborough University

West Midlands - Thursday 13 March: Mercure Birmingham West Hotel, West Bromwich

London - Wednesday 19 March: Hyatt Regency, Stratford City, London

South West - Wednesday 26 March: Holiday Inn, Taunton

South East - Thursday 27 March: Holiday Inn, Guildford

The workshops will run alongside the surveys and discussions will be held around some of the points raised, based on analysis of the data. Ideas and opinions from all attendees will be taken on board and used to help form the Co-creation of the Future of Coaching.

Entries Open for the 2025 Long Course Championships – Weekend 1

Entries have opened for the first weekend of the Long Course Swimming Championships.

Entries will close at midnight on 24th March. Shortly after that entries will open for weekends 2 and 3. Details of the events being swum in weekends 2 and 3 can be found in the Race Schedule.

Clubs holding meets on the weekend prior to the close date are asked to submit results to rankings promptly so that they can be used to enter by the closing date.

Swim England Judge Level 2 Online Application

Swim England have announced a new online registration process for Judge Level 2 (stroke judge), this replaces the previous system of completion an application form and posting or emailing it to the Regional Officials’ Coordinator.

To begin training for Judge Level 2, candidates must:

• Be at least 16 years old
• Have already qualified as a Judge Level 1
• Completed 20 hours of poolside experience after achieving the Level 1 qualification.

The training includes both theoretical learning and practical review sessions, along with mentored poolside training. A workbook will also be provided, which helps candidates demonstrate their practical competence before qualifying.



Once qualified, candidates will be listed as Judge Level 2 on the Swim England Membership Database.

The fee for Judge Level 2 training is £10. Swim England members who meet the requirements can apply. After applying, they will receive a logbook, (which can take up to two working weeks to arrive) and the contact details of your Regional Officials Co-ordinator, who can assist you in planning your training. 

Para-swimming CPD for Technical Officials

The next online presentation of this CPD will be on Thursday 10th April 2025 at 7:00pm on Zoom, the presenters are David Metcalf and Tony Ward (WPS ITO’s).

The CPD is an introduction to officiating at events that include swimmers with a disability, aimed at swimming technical officials, Judge Level 1 or above. This CPD will give an overview of Functional Classification System, Terminology & Sport Class Overview including knowledge of World Para Swimming (WPS) rules and rule exceptions.

The CPD is free and attracts 3 points towards the renewal of your officials licence.

If you have already attended a similar Para Officiating CPD since Summer 2023, this is the same presentation and there is no need to attend again.

To reserve a place on the course please click on the national link below. You will be contacted after 4th April with the Zoom joining instructions.

Everyone Active Sporting Champions Scheme

Applications for the Everyone Active Sporting Champions scheme 2025-6 are now open!

Last year the scheme supported 26 Sporting Champions who competed in the Paris Olympic and Paralympic games, achieving nine gold, six silver and eight bronze medals.

The Sporting Champions scheme aims to support talented athletes by providing FREE access to Everyone Active's 230+ leisure facilities across the country, alongside mentoring, workshops and support from some of the UK’s most influential athletes, including Gladiator and GB sprint star Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and quadruple Paralympic champion Maisie Summers-Newton. For 2025, EA are looking at hosting more mentoring, webinars and workshop sessions from their sites than ever before.

Applications close on Tuesday 11^th March 2025, for more information and to apply please go to the Sporting Champions website: 

Good Governance

Get support in your committee role by attending one of Swim England's role-specific workshops. 

Good Governance Chair workshop 

11th March - 18.15 or 21st March - 12.00

Good Governance Secretary and Membership Officer workshop 

Monday 3rd March - 18.00 - 20.00

Good Governance Welfare officer workshop 

10th March - 18.00 

The sessions for the Chairman and Welfare officer are mandatory for the role. If you have already attended a session this year, there's no need to attend again however, it is recommend attending a session every 12-18 months.

East Region Welfare

Increase in use of phones to take indecent images in changing rooms

Since the start of 2025 Swin England have seen a significant increase in the number of incidents reported where images have been taken under or over cubicles in changing rooms. So far all of these incidents have been at competitions.

Clubs are asked to remind members of the following extract from Wavepower;

Safeguarding in the Changing Rooms (p82)

It is imperative all Members of the Organisation, including employees and volunteers, understand the individually harmful and legal consequences of a person being sexually assaulted, or having indecent images of them taken. Such behaviour is illegal and will not be tolerated in any form.

We strongly recommend that Organisations engage locally with pool providers to create simple barrier systems, or make use of natural barriers between cubicles (e.g. lockers) to enable mixed ‘changing villages’ to be used only as separate changing areas for either sex. Children of different sexes should change in separate areas, never in the same cubicle, or adjoining cubicles. This will help in preventing crimes involving covert use of cameras or phones.

Mobile phones and devices should not be used under any circumstances in a changing room area during Swim England regulated activity. This should be supported by clear signage in changing rooms confirming a zero-tolerance approach to the use of mobile phones in changing areas.

All use of mobile devices in a changing room must be reported to the Organisation Welfare Officer and venue.

The Welfare Officer should decide whether or not the breach of Wavepower is a safeguarding concern (such as the reported taking of images/video, or the placing of a phone over/under a changing cubicle) and if so, this must be referred to the Swim England Safeguarding and Welfare Team as soon as possible. If the breach of this policy is not deemed to be a direct safeguarding concern (such as a Member using their phone to make a phone call in a changing area) then this should be dealt with under the Organisation’s behaviour and code of conduct process. If a potential crime has been committed, this must be reported to the Police immediately, and the venue must be informed.

Please contact the Regional Welfare Officer if you would like any advice on what pro active measures you can take eastwelfare@swimming.org

East Region Welfare Forum

The next regional welfare forum for Welfare Officers will be held on Monday 17^th March at 7pm via Zoom. For this forum we have the DBS Manager for Swim England Emma Langham attending to take part in a Q & A to answer all things DBS! To book your place please email eastwelfare@swimming.org

Time to Listen Workshop

The region organises Time to Listen Workshops for people undertaking the role of welfare officer for club or county. The workshops are run by UK Coaching and are arranged on demand. If you require this workshop or your club will be recruiting a new welfare officer please complete the expression of interest

Welfare Contacts

Regional Welfare Officer – Fran fran.vesztrocy@swimming.org or eastwelfare@swimming.org

SE DBS – DBS@swimming.org

SE Safeguarding – safeguarding@swimming.org

Raising a concern with SE Safeguarding - https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/how-raise-concern-complaint/

Wavepower - https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/wavepower-child-safeguarding-for-clubs/

SE Inclusion Hub - https://www.swimming.org/swimengland/inclusion/

Swim England Aquatic Club Poolside Helper Core Skills

This free eLearning course will familiarise you with the core skills and knowledge to support, assist and reinforce the instructions of a coach in your aquatic club.

This course contains videos and interactive activities designed to enhance your learning experience.

You will learn about:

• Training objectives
• Health and Safety
• Safeguarding
• Ethics
• The volunteer role
• Core Aquatics skills 

Qualifications 

East Region-Based Qualifications:

• 12698 Swim England Assistant Swimming Coach 14/03/2025 - Runnymede Leisure Centre
• 12327 Swim England Assistant Water Polo Coach 02/04/2025 - Riverside LC - Chelmsford

James Salmon

Regional Manager

james.salmon@swimming.org

Jo Stalley

Regional Operations Officer

jo.stalley@swimming.org

Fran Vesztrocy

Regional Welfare Officer

fran.vesztrocy@swimming.org

Emma Winter

Regional Administrator

emma.winter@swimming.org

General Enquiries

east@swimming.org

+44 (0) 7583 694233

Regional Welfare & Safeguarding

eastwelfare@swimming.org

01509 640378