EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

The Club will ensure that equity, as stated in the club rules, is incorporated in all aspects of its activities and also recognises and adopts  Sports England definition of Sports Equity:

Sports equity is about fairness in sport, equality of access, recognising inequalities and taking steps to address them. It is about changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to all members of society, whatever their age, ability, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality or socio-economic status.

The Club is committed to everyone having the right to enjoy their sport in an environment free from the threat of discrimination, intimidation, harassment and abuse.

All Club members have a responsibility to challenge discriminatory behaviour and promote equality of opportunity.

The Club will deal with any incidence of discriminatory behaviour seriously, according to the club disciplinary procedures.

Equal Opportunity in Swimming

Equal Opportunity is about celebrating difference and diversity and as such providing a swimming structure that can respond to this in a proactive and positive manner’.

British Swimming is totally committed to the principals and practice of equal opportunities across all of its aquatic disciplines, both as an employer, provider and as a facilitator of such practices by all its members. In our work with key partners, such as the athletes, clubs, teachers, coaches, officials and administrators, we will advocate our policies make every effort to ensure that all participation has equity at its core.

Swimming is a “sport for all’. It can and should be enjoyed and made accessible to everyone and to achieve this:

The British Swimming is committed to work towards ensuring that swimming is accessible to the many rather than the few.

The British Swimming recognizes the need to acknowledge the diversity of provision that is required to ensure that all people, regardless of their race, sex/gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, social or economic background can access swimming and develop at a level that is appropriate to them.

The British Swimming recognizes the need to celebrate differences and diversity of provision as a means of creating entitlement and accessibility to our structures.

The British Swimming recognizes that equal opportunity is about recognizing that people are different and therefore require different provision.

The British Swimming recognizes the need to consult widely in order to respond to diversity.

Addressing Equal Opportunities

In addressing equal opportunities, British Swimming will respond to issues of equity by:

Recognising that swimming as an organisation – our staff, athletes, coaches, teachers, officials and administrators need to adapt and work flexibly in order to respond to the needs of a wide and diverse range of people.

Take positive action to increase the involvement from underrepresented groups in all aspects of our organisation, participation, coaching, teaching, officialdom etc.

In doing so British Swimming supports four key principals as being fundamental to ensuring that everyone can participate in our sport and the achievement of equality of opportunity:

British Swimming as an employer

British Swimming aspires to provide a diverse workforce, a composition of which reflects that of the broader community in terms of gender, ethnicity and disability. In order to bring about this diversity, we undertake to:

• Provide full and fair considerations for all job, role and applications.
• Assist all our employees to realise their full potential by ensuring that they receive fair consideration of their training and career development needs and promotion opportunities.
• Wherever possible modify employment practices and procedures to reduce barriers experienced by members of disadvantaged social groups in seeking and during employment with the Association.
• Maintain full records in recruitment, training and employment and use this information as a means of identifying areas of inequality.
• Require all our employees to undergo relevant training before taking part in recruitment and selection.
• Regularly review our recruitment, selection, training and promotion procedures to ensure that they are fair and reflect current best practice.

British Swimming as a Membership Organisation

British Swimming is committed to encouraging membership from all sectors of the community. To achieve this we undertake to:

• Promote an open and honest culture that values diversity.
• Communicate widely, ensuring that our messages can be understood and appreciated by all.
• Positively encourage the involvement of all people, regardless of their gender, race, disability, age and social background.
• Work to redress the effects of discrimination.
• Change attitudes and working practices to ensure that everyone can feel a valued member of the Association.

Teachers and Coaches

In our training and development of Teachers and Coaches, we will strive to ensure that they:

• Establish and implement professional and ethical values and practice.
• Promote and apply the principals and practices of equal opportunities.
• Promote positive images of people with Special needs.
• Have a commitment to providing entitlement and access to all their professional activities.
• Encourage high expectations and standards of achievement from all they teach.
• Involve everyone in meaningful and appropriate activity to ensure a quality experience.
• Help everyone to achieve their full potential.

Entitlement: People have a right to participate in and access quality and appropriate experiences within diving, swimming, synchronised swimming and water polo.

Accessibility: It is the responsibility of British Swimming – our teachers, coaches, officials and administrators – to adapt provision to fit the needs of the many.

Inclusion: Wherever and whenever possible, all to access the same quality of provision, and if necessary to use positive action to ensure this:

Integrity: Whatever we do as an Association to change or adopt provision, it must be of equal worth, challenging, relevant and in no way patronising.

Lines of responsibility

British Swimming will strive to become an organisation that values diversity and in order to achieve this, we recognise that there must be clear lines of responsibility between all segments of the organisation.