Annual Report April 2019 – Sept 2020 Introduction

It would be easy for this report Our clubs and members not only to be dominated by the sit at the heart of their own COVID-19 pandemic that has communities, they remain at the hit us all over the past six Indeed, more than any other centre of what we do and who we months, and while it will not be year, we have had to be work for and with. While we ignored, it would be wrong not even more inclusive and support the need for a financial to highlight the great work that flexible in our approach to injection into the leisure industry to has been done to support developing aquatics, assist the reopening of facilities as clubs and work with partners, consulting with our we come out of lockdown, we all while helping to maintain members, volunteers, clubs need to make sure that pools will swimming as Scotland’s and partners as we progress benefit from any funding, helping number one participation sport. a return to our sport. to ensure a future for our sport, at participation and performance levels.

Participation Swimming is a sport for all and a sport for life; we have continued to provide opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to participate in our sport.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS: • The National Learn to Swim Framework supported by Scottish Water continued to grow with 39 providers signed up including 15 renewals and 6 new providers

• We continued to provide support through our extensive CPD programme, marketing campaigns, multiple resources and 2 networking events to share best practice

• We submitted a proposal to Government around investment for school swimming Club Development Clubs remain the foundation upon which aquatics is developed in Scotland and we continue to work to support clubs in governance, planning, volunteer and coach recruitment and retention.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• 69 clubs gained SwiMark Plus and 128 clubs achieved SwiMark accreditation. This involved 82 club planning sessions and 133 governance workshops

• Four further sportscotland direct club investment applications approved Club Engagement • The Young Volunteer programme launched and an inaugural young ambassador programme was held in November 2019

• Club Chairs networking events continued with a move to monthly virtual meetings during lockdown attracting 120 attendees

• We produced a range of detailed guidance documents for clubs, pool operators and swim schools to support a return to the water during COVID-19 People Development Teachers and coaches are the foundation of our sport, critical to the development of aquatics in Scotland.

Having quality teacher and coach education and development programmes are fundamental to developing an effective workforce. Quality Teaching Having high quality swimming teachers is critical to a child’s enjoyment and first experiences of learning to swim. KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• The new Scottish Swimming Teaching Qualification (SSTQ) was launched and we delivered 83 courses training 863 teachers

• We revised our inclusive swimming teaching CPD, delivering 13 workshops to 164 teachers

• We developed a new Aquatic Developer Programme (ADP) to help us to build capacity within the aquatic workforce, training 22 teachers Quality Coaching Coaches and coaching remain critical to the on- going development of the sport and in supporting clubs, programmes and the performances of the athletes.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• We delivered 16 Level 1 and 8 Level 2 coaching courses across the disciplines, training 232 coaches

• During the lockdown we set up SS Connect, a virtual CPD and workshop programme which saw over half of our 660 registered coaches engaging in virtual learning 2019 FINA World Championships, Gwangju Quality Coaching Steven Tigg Coach (Swimming) Rebecca Gallantree Coach (Diving) • We started an extensive coaching review to consider how we support all of our coaches 2019 World Para Swimming World Championships, London working in clubs. As a result, a new Coaching Framework is out for consultation to widen Danielle Brayson Coach coaching opportunities across all domains 2019 World University Games, Naples

• Seven coaches across disciplines were part of Mat Trodden Coach the British Teams competing on the international stage – a fantastic recognition of the contribution European Junior Championships, Kazan Scottish coaches are making to aquatics across Scotland and Britain Kostas Kalitsas Coach

European Diving Championships, Ukraine

Rebecca Gallantree Coach

World Junior Championships, Budapest

Brad Hay Coach

Scottish athletes continued significant success at World and European Championships at both senior and junior levels.

2019 World Aquatic Championships, Gwangju • 5 Scots competed under the Great Britain banner • A first individual medal from Duncan Scott in the 200m Freestyle (bronze) • Second fastest 100m Freestyle split of all time as the British 4 x 100m Relay team took Gold • Joining Scott were Ross Murdoch (semi-final 200m Breaststroke) and Scott McLay (4 x 100m Freestyle Relay final) 2019 World Aquatic Championships, Gwangju • Divers Grace Reid and James Heatly continued their representation on the British Team in Gwangju

• Grace placing 5th in the 3m springboard synchro, 4th in the 3m springboard mixed synchro, 8th in the 3m individual springboard (qualifying an Olympic spot for GB) and James 9th in the 1m springboard event World Para Swimming Championships, London • 4 Scots selected under the Great Britain banner • Standout performance from athlete Toni Shaw winning 4 individual medals and 2 x golds in Team Relay with a World Record in the 34pts 4x100m Medley Relay • Medals for Scott Quin, Stephen Clegg and a debut medal for Louis Lawlor World University Games, • Craig Benson, Mark Szaranek, Craig McLean and Gemma McArthur selected • Gemma took a bronze in the 10m platform event European Diving Championships, Ukraine • James Heatly and Gemma McArthur competed under the Great Britain banner • James won a bronze medal in the men’s 3m springboard, qualifying an additional place for GB at the Tokyo Olympics in the process European Junior Championships, Kazan • Katie Shanahan and Archie Goodburn competed for Great Britain and respectively took bronze in 400m Individual Medley and silver in 50m Breaststroke European Youth Olympic Festival, Azerbaijan • Shanahan won an unprecedented 3 golds and 3 silver medals, breaking the 400m Individual Medley, the 200m Individual Medley, and 200 Backstroke meet records in the process World Junior Championships, Budapest • Goodburn ended the season 2018/19 season with a bronze medal in the 50m Breaststroke Factors for Success The following factors have been critical in developing quality environments across all levels of aquatics.

• Strong relationships with partners: sportscotland, districts, clubs, British Swimming, the home countries, leisure trusts and universities

• Working with sportscotland Institute of Sport to deliver the National Programme for over 500 athletes and coaches from 81 clubs

• More opportunities to broaden competitive, technical and training experiences

• Sustainability – strategically focusing on ensuring the long term robustness of the sport •

Membership Scottish Swimming works with, and for our members. Everything we want to achieve happens in partnership with local and national organisations supporting and working with us.

• For the year we maintained our membership at just over 24,000 members

• Swimming membership has remained the same as previous year, but we have seen a slight increase in non-swimming members

• 57% of our swimmers are female, and of all our swimmers, 55% are age 12 and under Membership

• We ended the membership year with 165 affiliated clubs. Of those, 35% had achieved SwiMark Plus, and another third of our clubs had achieved SwiMark status

• Two weeks into lockdown was the start of our new membership year and we were heartened to see the renewals come in despite the uncertainty for the immediate future. This allowed us to continue to work to ensure we were ready to support our clubs back to the water as we emerged from lockdown Mental health and well-being

At the heart of Scottish Scottish Swimming is Swimming is the committed to mental Members people: our members, health and is working staff, volunteers and towards the bronze athletes. level for Mental Health in the Workplace. This We have increased our includes the promotion focus on mental health of mental health and Athletes Staff to ensure everyone People resilience, enabling within the organisation people to thrive at work. can thrive and feel supported in this area.

Volunteers Well-being and Protection

Well-being and protection continues to be a priority for the organisation and a wide range of training and CPD opportunities are offered to members in this area as a member benefit, delivered either regionally in person or nationally on virtual platforms. Changes and outcomes this year include:

Child Well-being and Protection in Child Well-being in Sport Sport (CWPS) in April 2019 Officer Training (CWPO) in In person Well-being and 44 courses 657 attendees March 2020 Protection Officer (WPO) 11 courses 188 attendees networking and support session were delivered Well-being and Protection input was 3 sessions 14 attendees given to support the update of the Team Manager and Volunteer Management Online CPD learning courses opportunities: Short (90 min) webinar sessions 5 sessions 40 attendees

Stability v Uncertainty

PRESENT FUTURE

Overall our financial Like the majority of position remains the population we are positive and we are The future entering a phase of sure this will provide uncertainty and have our members and no doubt that the partners with a financial impact of degree of comfort The Present COVID-19 will be felt given that lockdown across all sports and took place one week businesses before the end of our throughout Scotland financial year. The past and the UK over the next few years. Highlights and Considerations

KEY HIGHLIGHTS: KEY CONSIDERATIONS:

Reserves at the end COVID -19 will have of March 2020 an impact on our sport £291k Scottish Water partnership going forward Negotiations with British £300k invested so far Swimming to extend partnership for further Membership income 3 years £800k = ¼ of turnover Continued support from sportscotland with £1.3M sportscotland released this year to support investment £1.3M staffing and business continuity

Extended Partnerships

We continue to have Scottish Water have just positive and close extended their original 3 year partnerships with TYR and Learn to Swim partnership into Scottish Water. TYR a Year 4 agreement to continue to give their September 2021 as we take in support as our official kit the new Olympics and supplier with a remaining Paralympics dates and 4.5 years left of the 8 year welcome high profile athletes partnership. Duncan Scott and Toni Shaw as Learn to Swim ambassadors for the same period. Thank you

The COVID-19 interruption has challenged us all, but our resilience, strong partners and relationships will continue to help us through – our thanks go to sportscotland , National Lottery, Scottish Water, TYR, Harper Macleod, our local authority, leisure trust and university partners; and of course our amazing volunteers, members and supporters.

We are a values driven organisation led by our #Oneteam ethos: United behind our plan and at our best when we are all working together.