Swim England Apologises For String Of Errors Over Ellesmere Titans Disaffiliation
Swim England has apologised to Ellesmere Titans for errors it made in the disaffiliation of the club in 2022 which included acting on anonymous information that turned out to be false.
The governing body, with CEO Andy Salmon at its helm after succeeding Jane Nickerson in February 2024, also acknowledges that if had handled matters better, “there was a real chance that the club would not have been disaffiliated.”
In a statement, the governing body admitted to:
- 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*;
- Disjointed and unstructured decision-making, and inadequate executive oversight and leadership once concerns were raised over the process;
- Failing to give adequate consideration to the welfare of the children that would be affected by disaffiliation; and
- Failing to conduct a prompt review of the situation following the receipt of new information that some of the allegations were false*.
The club – with British Olympians among its alumni – was stripped of its affiliation by Swim England and its West Midlands division in April 2022 following a report in January that year about safeguarding at training base Ellesmere College, a boarding school in Shropshire.
Swim England now admits it didn’t substantiate some of the allegations, some of which were false.
Swim England Statement
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, which include:
- 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*;
- Disjointed and unstructured decision-making, and inadequate executive oversight and leadership once concerns were raised over the process;
- Failing to give adequate consideration to the welfare of the children that would be affected by disaffiliation; and
- Failing to conduct a prompt review of the situation following the receipt of new information that some of the allegations were false*.
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.
*This does not refer to findings and actions resulting from an initial Swim England safeguarding investigation concerning Ellesmere Titans Swimming Club that concluded in July 2021. It refers to allegations examined in a second investigation concluded in January 2022 that triggered disaffiliation of the club.