Equal Opportunity in Swimming

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

Addressing Equal Opportunities

In addressing equal opportunities, Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club will ensure that equity (as stated in the club rules) is incorporated into all aspects of its activities, and in doing so, recognises and adopts the following Sport 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 it becomes equally accessible to all members of society"

Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club also supports the following four key principals as being fundamental to ensuring equity in our sport.

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

Accessibility: It is the responsibility of the club to adapt provision to fit the needs of the many.

Inclusion: Wherever and whenever possible, we will make every effort to ensure all have access to the same quality of provision, and if necessary, we will use positive action to ensure this:

Integrity: Whatever we do as a club in changing or adopting provision, it must be of equal worth, challenging, relevant and in no way patronising.

Equity Policy

In addressing these key principles, Sutton and Cheam Swimming Club and all its members undertake to respond to issues of equity by:

• Recognising that swimming and water polo are 'Sports for all'. They can and should be enjoyed and made accessible to everyone.
• Positively encouraging involvement, membership and participation from all sectors of the community, regardless of their gender, race, disability, age and social background, ensuring that swimming is accessible to the many rather than the few
• Acknowledging that equal opportunity is about recognising that people are different and therefore require different provision
• Taking positive action to increase the involvement from under represented groups in all aspects of our club
• recognising that as a club, we need to adapt and work flexibly in order to respond to the needs of a wide and diverse range of people.
• Promoting an open and honest culture that values diversity and promotes equality of opportunity
• Ensuring that everyone feels a valued member of our club
• Opposing discriminatory behaviour and dealing with any incidence of discriminatory behaviour seriously, according to the ASA's 'Code of Ethics' and the Club disciplinary procedures.

Teaching and Coaching

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

• Adopt, promote and practice the principals and practices of equal opportunities
• Promote positive images of people with Special needs.
• Are committed 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.
• Ensure that participation can be enjoyed by all.

Although we will do our utmost to promote equality and inclusion for all within the club, and will never exclude membership on discriminatory grounds, reluctantly, as primarily a competitive club, we need to recognise that there could be occasions when for whatever reason, we may be unable to cater for someone's specific special needs and may need to refer them elsewhere.

To this end, the club has established strong working links with the London Borough of Sutton's disability swimming initiatives:

Waves Disability Swimming Session

The Waves session is a Sutton Community Leisure initiative which takes place on a Wednesday evenings at Westcroft Leisure Centre between 6.30 - 8.00pm.

The Waves session aims to provide a safe, fun environment where disabled people can come to swim/play and interact with siblings and carers as well as making new friends. The session provides for complete beginners to those who can already swim with a desire to swim competitively.

Sign & Swim

Established in 1997, the Sign and Swim programme has proved to be a valuable asset for hearing impaired young people.

The Sign and Swim scheme is organised and co-ordinated by London Borough of Sutton's Swimming Development Officer.

Visual Impaired Swimming Lessons

Established in April 2004, swimming lessons for children with a visual impairment have been provided by the London Borough of Sutton and the London Sports Forum for Disabled people.

For information on these and other borough initiatives, please contact the London Borough of Sutton's Swimming Development Officer, Nick Ibrahim

Leisure management
24 Denmark Road
Carshalton
Surrey
SM5 2JG

For those more recreationally minded, there are also two non-competitive clubs within the borough who offer opportunities to train on a regular basis but not compete (except in fun galas), these are: -

CAWPRA Swimming Club

CAWPRA is a friendly club that teaches and coaches youngsters from 5 to 16+ years on a Sunday evening at Cheam Leisure Centre from 6.30pm onwards. The emphasis is on learning and improving using the ASA Swimming Plan. Subscriptions are competitively priced. Adults can swim in a child free zone from 7.45 pm to 8.30 pm on Sunday.

Contact name & address:
Mrs Margaret Trotman Tel: 020-8643-0164 Fax: 020-8643-0717
31 Devon Road, Cheam, Surrey SM2 7PE

Dolphin Swimming Club

Dolphin teaches beginners to swim and improves technique for existing swimmers as well as building up stamina. The club meets at Cheam Leisure Centre on a Friday evening from 7.30 pm - 10.00 pm.
Mixed groups are taught from the ages of 6 - 18 years old.
Adults are welcome to swim between 9.30 pm and 10.00 pm.

Contact name & address:

Audrey Wallis Tel: 020-8644-8203
61 Newbolt Avenue, Cheam, Surrey

Geoff Butcher Tel: 020-8644-9692
78 Erskin Road, Sutton, Surrey

To download the Club's Equity Policy in Acrobat (pdf) format, click here.