Swim England has today apologised for the mistakes it made in the disaffiliation of Ellesmere Titans Swimming Club in 2022.  

In a reach for meaningful reform under the guidance of its new CEO Andy Salmon, the national governing body has admitted to multiple errors, including:

• failure to fully verify false allegations with those concerned
• failure to properly consider child welfare
• failure of the leadership in its lack of adequate or appropriate response when concerns were flagged over the disaffiliation

In a public statement issued today (in full at the foot of his article), Swim England also thanked the families of the Ellesmere Parents Group who challenged it on the disaffiliation. The federation acknowledges how the Titans case and the parents’ campaign has shone a light on where reform of governance and culture was and is needed. 

A promising reform process is underway, one that State of Swimming will be subjecting to close scrutiny in the coming months. Here are some of the key issues at the heart of a crisis that Swim England has now apologised for:  

1. FALSE ALLEGATIONS 

In an encouraging sign of a changed culture under Andy Salmon's new leadership, and of Swim England’s new mantra of “doing what is right”, the governing body today issued an apology to the children, families and volunteers of Ellesmere Titans Swimming Club and to Ellesmere College over the disaffiliation of the Club and related matters.

The saga goes back to April 2022 when the club, one of Britain most successful and a key talent-development hub for the nation’s Olympic program, was stripped of its affiliation by Swim England and its West Midlands division, which acted on a recommendation from headquarters to take a drastic action stacked with consequence for swimmers and their families. 

The disaffiliation was based on a report in January 2022 that dealt with allegations about safeguarding at Ellesmere College, where the swimming club trained. Swim England now accepts that some serious allegations against the College were false, and that it acted on allegations without them being verified with either the College or others directly involved.  Some of those allegations were made anonymously.

Swim England has apologised for failing to engage adequately with relevant parties at the time when it came to making efforts to obtain accurate information.

2. FURTHER FAILINGS OVER CHILD WELFARE, COMPLAINT HANDLING, AND THE NEW AFFILIATION PROCESS

According to complaints by affected families, the disaffiliation had a devastating impact on the welfare of numerous children, particularly College boarders, many of whom were on swimming scholarships.  The timing of the federation’s action added to the harm felt by swimmers and their families: it came in the middle of the school year, and the day before the British Swimming Championships, despite the parents’ pleas for more time.

At the time there was, remarkably, no formal procedure for the club or families to raise their welfare concerns over Swim England’s actions - despite Swim England’s obligations under its own rules to listen to both children and parents. 

Nor was there any channel for appeal or complaint to challenge the use of false information. 

Swim England has now also finally recognised and apologised for the fact that it did not give adequate consideration to all the welfare impacts of its decisions in matters relating to the club. 

It has also apologised for errors made in its early handling of the application to affiliate a new club. An application was eventually granted only late in 2024, leaving the children without a club in Ellesmere for two and a half years. 

The governing body has further apologised for poor leadership when the parents first raised their concerns, including the board’s own failure to respond adequately when issues were escalated to it after the Weston Report:

Hope Of A Brighter Day: Titans Welcome Weston Review Backing Their Call For Overhaul Of Governance Regime That Failed The Sport

So urgent is the need for reform, writes Barrister Louis Weston, that by June Swim England should have an entirely new safeguarding and disciplinary regime in place, one that keeps management behind a firewall and hands power over to experts in child welfare and sports law

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

3.  “NEVER AGAIN” – ELLESMERE FAMILIES THANKED FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO REFORM

An Ellesmere Parents Group, set up in 2022 to represent the families of more than 50 affected children, has spent years advocating for improved processes and culture in Swim England.  It has also campaigned to ensure the voices of affected children – originally excluded - were finally heard in the affiliation process for a new club. 

A spokesperson for many of the families affected told State of Swimming:

“We warmly welcome this apology from Swim England, which is so important to the many children who were victims of these failings. 

But a main motivation for our campaign was also to make sure this never happens again - so others won’t have to suffer what these children suffered or go through what our families had to go through to get the culture and governance failings acknowledged and addressed.”

In its statement today, Swim England conveys its thanks to the families, acknowledging how their input has highlighted multiple areas for improvement. It also acknowledges the “serious toll” that the whole sorry saga has taken on those involved in the campaign for due and fair process.

Complaints by the Parents Group to Sport England about Swim England’s procedures were formally upheld some years ago, and in 2022 directly led to Sport England supporting the creation of a complaints procedure within Swim England. 

Complaints from both the Parents Group and others also led Sport England to commission the 2023 Weston Report to look at the initial decision-making procedures used in the Titans case and two others. The report concluded that the safeguarding and judicial processes were confusing and inadequate; so bad, in fact, that they were judged to have “failed the sport”. Those conclusions resulted in a major procedural overhaul.

Swim England has now told the Titans families that a further list of detailed reforms – first proposed by the Parents Group in February 2025 - is now being considered as part of a reform process that would harness the families’ information and suggestions, including:

• A review of how Swim England can support children whose welfare is affected by safeguarding decisions, including those taken to remove coaches from clubs - something which State of Swimming understands has already led to significant changes that have been welcomed by the families who raised that issue; 
• A review of the procedures for club affiliation, renewal and disaffiliation, having regard to detailed suggestions the families have made on that issue;
• A review of the policies on swimming clubs connected with schools, which the parents have proposed should be the subject of robust study and public consultation to take account of all perspectives.

4. BULLYING OF TITANS CHILDREN

As a result of allegations about the club in both 2021 and 2022, the former Titans members suffered not only the loss of their club but also bullying and hostility from other swimmers, their parents, and even officials.

Children reported being booed at galas, abused in person at events and on social media: one anonymous poster challenged the presence at events of children from their “scummy school”; and some swimmers were accused of “stealing” medals when they were forced to compete for other clubs following the disaffiliation of the Titans. 

One child told State of Swimming:

“When I first joined Titans I was so proud and so excited to be part of the club. I have made some of the best friends here yet I then had to experience the worst period of my life. One experience was being at a swim meet and others laughed at us, pointed and even some booing at us as a team. There was a team manager from another club openly talking negatively about us whilst stood next to us poolside, which was really upsetting.”

Another said:

“The worst bit was having to go to British Champs the day after affiliation was removed as it was really embarrassing and we felt like we shouldn’t be there. Lots were clearly  whispering about us and others made hurtful comments. We have seen on social media that swim parents, who don’t even know us, have victimised us sometimes using our names.”

Swim England’s statement today provides a robust clarification, one welcomed by Titans campaigners and the wider swimming community in Britain pressing for reform, that this kind of behaviour was, and remains, unacceptable:

“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”.

Such behaviour is clearly prohibited by Swim England rules. Regulations also require all members of Swim England and their parents to report this kind of behaviour – past or current – as, when and where they are aware of it. 

Editorial

A SALUTARY LESSON: THE IMPORTANCE OF DUE PROCESS 

The Titans saga provides a salutary lesson in the importance of due process for coming to the right decision.  It is vital that safeguarding allegations are always taken seriously and thoroughly investigated with appropriate input from anyone coming forward with allegations.

But – as the Weston report highlighted – it is equally important the investigation process offers a proper chance for input to those who are accused of safeguarding breaches, to avoid acting on false or even malicious allegations. It was a failure to do that that led Swim England to act on false information in the Titans case.

Some of Swim England’s processes, including the safeguarding sanctions process, have now been subject to important reforms following the Weston Report, so that all parties have input and safeguarding sanctions against clubs and volunteers are examined by a judicial panel. These reforms took effect in the summer of 2024 and have been widely welcomed by many of the affected stakeholders who have spoken to State of Swimming.

However, there are still some gaps in its procedures including – remarkably – in the procedures for affiliation of clubs, where a formal procedure for disaffiliation is still to be put in place. 

Stakeholders have also raised with State of Swimming question marks over the robustness of the formal controls on suspension and on disclosure of information to accused parties. They have also raised concerns that the general policies around swimming clubs at schools – which have been the subject of various complaints and scandals – are still not adequate.

Swim England is currently conducting a general governance review which, as mentioned above, may finally deal with at least some these issues.  The State of Swimming will be examining these and other matters in forthcoming articles, as well as giving close scrutiny to the governance reforms as they unfold in 2026. 

FULL TEXT OF THE APOLOGY  FROM SWIM ENGLAND

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.