Swim England has unveiled its reorganised structure, way of working and contact details for its new-look teams.
The recognised national governing body announced in July that changes had to be made to the organisation as the coronavirus pandemic has had a ‘huge impact on its work and finances’.
Following a consultation period, a total of 69 team members are moving on from Swim England.
Jane Nickerson, Swim England chief executive, said: “It’s been extremely upsetting to see so many of the Swim England family who have worked so tirelessly for us – some for a number of years – leave the organisation.
“This has been a tough time for those involved but everyone has handled it with dignity and professionalism.
“We thank them for that, their dedication to their roles and we wish all of them well in their future endeavours.
“Our focus now turns to ensuring our new-look team continues to provide the high-class service we pride ourselves on, to our partners, operators, facility owners, clubs, regions, swim schools, coaches, teachers, volunteers and participants in all our disciplines – in fact all our members and everyone who enjoy all our sports.
“We will continue to fight on their behalf in this ever-changing situation we find ourselves in to ensure everyone has the necessary facilities to learn how to swim, train and compete in all our sports and enjoy the many physical and mental health benefits that aquatic activity can bring.
“In the meantime, we thank everyone for their unwavering support during these challenging times.”
The key Swim England changes are:
Learn to Swim, workforce and swim schools
The Learn to Swim team will have a specific focus on developing and delivering products that complement the world-leading Swim England Learn to Swim Programme.
The team will collectively take on the responsibilities for School Swimming and the development of the Water Wellbeing Model.
This will be a technical focused team, which will be available to support the Business Engagement Team members with work areas related to Learn to Swim.
Business Engagement Team
Essentially, the Strategic Partnerships Team, Health and Wellbeing Team and Workforce Development team have been combined into one outward facing team supporting the sector.
This means that customer touch points can get greater clarity in who their Swim England main point of contact is – and this one team will still provide the support across our broad range of expertise.
This is the ‘one stop shop’ for leisure operations. The team will work collaboratively to ensure you have access to experts from across Swim England and the Institute of Swimming including learn to swim, workforce development, insight, pool programming and participation.
Sport Development
We will continue to work with the Swim England Regions to ensure a collaborative, joined-up approach with the aim of providing excellent service to our clubs as we support their return to water and the further development of the sport.
Our focus going forward will be addressing the key national issues and opportunities affecting our participants and clubs whilst supporting our regions and disciplines with their priorities.
We are working with the Discipline Leadership Groups on our competition programme.
Talent teams are in place for each of our disciplines and will work closely with the Development Team to support the re-emergence of our sports into the water as well as our talent athletes who are accessing training in their home environments.
We will also be delivering a wealth of talent activity online and through our new Diploma in Sporting Excellence programme.
Marketing. Communications and operations
The team will create digital marketing rather than traditional marketing to maximise the customer journey. Online, e-communication, video and social will be the primary marketing channels moving forwards
The membership, rankings and customer service functions will focus on delivering – and enhancing – an exceptional membership experience.
Business Support Services and People Development
Both the Finance and People Development teams have reduced in numbers in line with reductions across the organisation and will continue to support the new size team.
Recruitment was paused in March and that will continue to be the case, with the exception of currently vacant posts that were not filled during the redeployment process.