Swim England apologises for failings over closure of Ellesmere swimming club
A sporting body has apologised for its handling of the closure of a Shropshire swimming club that followed a series of safeguarding complaints.
Swim England disaffiliated itself from Ellesmere Titans Swimming Club in 2022 following the complaints - some of which were later found to be false.
Now Swim England has issued a formal apology over the handling of the closure and admitted it could have kept the club in operation had it not been responsible for a series of "failures".
It also admitted that some of the allegations against the club had turned out to be false.
In a statement, swimming's governing body said: "Swim England would like to apologise to the swimmers, parents, and volunteers of Ellesmere Titans Swimming Club, and also to Ellesmere College, over Swim England’s handling of the disaffiliation of the club.
"This fell short of the expected standards. Had we met those standards there was a real chance that the club would not have been disaffiliated in 2022, given the willingness of the club committee to work with Swim England to address the safeguarding concerns that did exist, and the fact that some of the more serious concerns that were alleged turned out to be false.
"We also accept that had we handled the affiliation application for a new club at Ellesmere College properly in its initial stages there may have been a swifter affiliation of that club.
"We apologise to all those impacted by Swim England’s failings."
It said it admitted "failing to adequately engage with some of those involved to obtain full and accurate information, leading to our acting on anonymous information, at least some of which we now understand was false".
There had also been "disjointed and unstructured decision-making, and inadequate executive oversight and leadership once concerns were raised over the process".
It also admitted "failing to give adequate consideration to the welfare of the children that would be affected by disaffiliation" and failed "to conduct a prompt review of the situation following the receipt of new information that some of the allegations were false".
The statement added: "Further, at the time these matters were being dealt with, there was no complaints policy to allow these issues to be adequately raised and investigated. In the absence of such a policy, the board failed to respond adequately when issues were escalated to them.
"We wish to thank those who have raised concerns in relation to the shortcomings of both Swim England’s general procedures and its handling of this case and in doing so have highlighted areas for improvement for the benefit of all those in our aquatics community. We acknowledge the persistence that has been required in order to have these failings properly reviewed and the serious toll this has taken on the individuals involved.
"We also wish to acknowledge again those who came forward to raise the initial safeguarding concerns with Swim England. It is important that both those with safeguarding concerns and those who are accused of safeguarding breaches can have confidence that they will now be dealt with through a process that is confidential, robust and fair.
"Reviewing this matter has also highlighted instances of poor culture in how the swimmers from Ellesmere College were treated by others within the aquatics community. We wish to publicly state that any form of toxic culture, where swimmers are 'shamed' or excluded from our sport due to current or past safeguarding concerns in respect of their clubs or schools, is not to be tolerated and we encourage all members of our community to uphold the type of culture we want to be a part of."
A spokesperson for Ellesmere College said: "We welcome Swim England’s acknowledgement that its handling of matters in 2022 fell short of expected standards, and its apology regarding its assessment of false allegations made against the college that ultimately contributed to the disaffiliation of the club.
"We also wish to thank those clubs and individuals who have so strongly supported our swimmers and who remain committed to working in partnership with Swim England to the benefit of all."
