Many of you will be wondering what all the fuss is about “Swim 21” and how it will affect the swimmers ,parents and coaches of City of Bradford Swimming Club.

Swim 21 is a structured programme built round the needs of the swimmer, and the aim is to act as a planning tool to access resources and provide appropriate opportunities for swimmers to help them achieve their full potential. It was established to encourage clubs to make a commitment to developing their services, to audit their strengths and weaknesses and to implement action plans to reach development targets.

Swimming Clubs such as City of Bradford are a crucial element in the future success of swimming in this country. Swim 21 Accreditation provides the backbone to achieving this, establishing the seamless pathway of good practice along which young swimmers will travel to the highest levels possible.

It is structured around four levels, Teaching, Skill Development, at which City of Bradford have achieved the Silver award, Competitive Development and Performance. In the future our aim should be to gain accreditation at Competitive Development level, which requires the skills of an ASA Coach.

Initially it has already had an affect on the general running of the club in many ways. It has made us prioritise and identify our own strengths and weaknesses and the action plan we submitted has enabled us to set goals for the future. The programme has helped us help ourselves and is a blue print for ASA good practice. Just because we now have our accreditation doesn’t mean we can file it away on the top shelf! We will have to revalidate our accreditation each year and Swim 21 will be firmly on the agenda for each Committee meeting.

With our accreditation certificate we received Continuing Professional Development (CPD) vouchers which will enable us to send our coaches and volunteers on courses and to conferences free of charge . We will now be able to gain a significant discount on NEC grants for volunteers. Long Course training at Leeds International Pool which we have accessed in previous years will in the near future only be accessible to accredited clubs, another example of the advantages of our new found status. In the long run it will help us to access funding to such schemes as the School Club Links programme and Community Coach funding. In the very near future such funding will not be available to non accredited clubs.

As the Club currently has no official sponsor, our Swim 21 Accreditation is a further tool we can use in the process of trying to obtain a sponsor. Indeed if you know any firm who would be willing to consider sponsoring the club please contact any Committee member to discuss the matter further.

Most importantly as an Accredited club we are now recognised publicly as a quality club, not just within our local community but also on a National basis so in turn this has raised the profile of the Club.

So in a nutshell Swim 21 is a “quality mark” it recognises and kite marks clubs that are committed to providing a safe, effective and quality service The more we put into the process the more the members will gain from the programme.

Swim 21 Accreditation along with the Sport England Clubmark award we gained in conjunction with our accreditation is recognised by parents seeking a quality Club for their children. The certificates we received can be found on the notice boards at each pool and we will also be putting the appropriate logos on all our headed paper and publicity.