The coaches and poolside team at Chelmsford City Swimming Club will do all they can to ensure that children enjoy all the activities the club offers and that they progress in accordance with their ability.

However, if your child is unhappy or you simply have questions about training or competitions that you would like to ask your child’s coach then please email the Head Coach of the relevant aquatics section.

Please remember that as per the Codes of Conduct you must not interrupt a poolside training session or a competition to speak to the coaches, volunteers or if you are not happy with the response from the coaching team, please email the club Chair for further information on the next steps, and also see below for the stages of making a complaint.

Swim England have a whistleblowing policy where you can raise genuine concerns about wrongdoing or illegal or unethical conduct, whether suspected or confirmed, for review or investigation – please refer to the Heart of Aquatics section of their website for details on this.

Swim England have a Coaches Referral Protocol where concerns can be raised directly with Swim England – please refer to the Heart of Aquatics section of their website for details on this.

Swim England’s Judicial and Safeguarding Regulations – Swim England

Essentially, alongside our wish for our members to enjoy and succeed at their sport, we want to ensure that they are safe and happy at Chelmsford City Swimming Club and that the club act upon anything that prevents that. This is what we call, ‘safeguarding our members’ and anything related to this is what our Welfare Officer is here to try and help you with.

Examples of some of the things that members are being safeguarded from?

• Bullying
• Being treated differently from others
• Hurt by another person on purpose
• Not listened to

Preventing such behaviour is very important to the club and to achieve this we follow the Swim England safeguarding protocol called Wavepower. It is updated regularly to ensure that it remains current and you can view or download the latest version from the Swim England website.

All our members are given one of these waterproof cards upon joining to keep in their kit bag, in case they ever need it.

Tell a parent, a coach, the Welfare Officer or any other adult you feel happy to speak to.

Anyone who has a concern about the welfare of a child or the behaviour of an adult towards a child or young person under 18 years of age within Swim England, is required to refer it to the safeguarding team.

Raising a safeguarding concern can be done via our club or either the County or Regional Welfare Officers, and also directly with the Swim England team on 01509 640700 or Click here to complete the Wavepower referral form.

Our club Welfare Officer email address is: welfareofficer@chelmsfordcityswimmingclub.org.uk
The Swim England Essex email address is welfare@essexswimming.org
The Swim England East Region email address is fran.vesztrocy@swimming.org

The Swim England team is staffed by individuals who are experienced in dealing with these concerns and have undergone specific training for those who have a designated role in child protection within sports.

Please contact the club Chair or Secretary if you have concerns with such things as:

• disciplinary matters
• breaches of the Swim England Code of Ethics and / or Codes of Conduct
• breakdowns in communication and disputes between members at the club
• club constitution disputes (this is our company Articles as Chelmsford City Swimming Club is both a limited company and a registered charity)
• club governance disputes and voting rights

All Swim England affiliated clubs must follow the Swim England Judicial Regulations for internal club disputes, so they will advise you of the steps that must be followed to resolve your complaint or concern.

If you are not happy with the action being taken to resolve your complaint, you can seek advice from Swim England.

Swim England consider that there are very few instances where an internal dispute should lead to a formal complaint to the national governing body but if doing so it should be noted that complaints to them may take many months to be resolved.

There is also always the possibility that a formal complaint to Swim England could make matters worse and that it may not result in an outcome that enables everyone to move on within the same club afterwards. As such the following steps are the procedures set out by Swim England for dealing with issues.

Step one –Discussion Meeting to resolve

The best idea is to sit down and talk about the issue, as soon as possible, in a calm and civilised manner and to try to resolve the issue without falling out.

Ideally the individuals involved could do this informally and as quickly as possible.

If the issue is not resolved at step one then;

Step two – Reporting Concern to the Chair and Logging the Complaint

A complaint must be submitted to the club Chair using the Swim England club complaint form.

You can email the club Chair or Welfare Officer to request a club complaint form to be sent to you or you can download it from the Swim England website.

This must be done within 14 days of the issue that has caused the complaint to be raised.

• Once the form is received the complainant has 7 days to complete and return the form to the club Chair.
• The club Chair has 3 days from receipt of the completed form from the complainant to send them a response.
• The complainant then has a further 7 days to update and return the form it to the Chair.

If the issue is not resolved at step two then;

Step three – Resolution Through Mediation

If both parties are willing then the Chair, or another member of the Board if the Chair is involved in the complaint, will arrange for an independent mediator to meet with both parties within 14 days.

The mediator will be someone from the club who is independent, in that they haven’t been involved in this or any other related issue previously, and is not a family member or particular friend (or enemy) of either party.

The conduct of the meeting should be informal, and the mediator will ask both parties what resolution or outcome they are seeking, and both parties should be willing to achieve a resolution, even if this means compromise.

The mediator should seek to come to a conclusion at the meeting that is acceptable to both parties.

If the issue is not resolved at step three then;

Step four – Hearing the Complaint

If parties do not agree to mediation, or the mediation process at step 3 fails, the Judicial regulations of Swim England require that a Club Complaint Hearing takes place.

The club will appoint a panel of 3 independent members who can listen to the complaint without bias, so must not have previously been involved in the issue or incident, must not have an ‘interest’ in the outcome, and should be acceptable to both parties.

Usually, within a club, it is possible to find suitable members who have not been involved in the complaint. However, if that isn’t possible, for example because the complaint is about an issue that involves many members, the region will help the club identify people who can hear the complaint independently.

A hearing shall take place within 28 days of the panel’s appointment and upon completion the panel shall provide a copy of their decision to the parties and the club Chair within 14 days.

Everyone involved must remember that the purpose of the hearing is to try to resolve the complaint, so that all members can to continue to enjoy their sport.

If there is found to have been a breach of Chelmsford City Swimming Club rules then sanctions may apply.

If there is found to have been a breach of Swim England regulations then the matter should be referred to the Office of Judicial Administration.

If the issue is not resolved at step four then;

Step five – Judicial Complaints (Regulation 104)

A judicial complaint may include such things as;

1. allegations of maladministration or misconduct by a club or individual
2. a complaint arising from a water polo match
3. allegations of a breach of Swim England Regulations or the Code of Ethics
4. a complaint arising out of a Club complaint outcome (see above)
5. a protest appeal

A judicial complaint must be made within 30 days of the incident occurring or the date the club outcome was distributed.

Further information, including the Judicial Complaint form, can be found on the Swim England website.