Jamie Hooper's presentation at the 2016 Constructing Excellence Annual Conference

1. Swimming; an
inclusive sport?

2. Who am I?
Jamie Hooper
Health & Wellbeing Manager
Amateur Swimming Association
@just_jamie1990

3. To Cover
• Current Swimming Situation
• Behaviour Change Insight
• Our commitment to equality & inclusion
• Our future strategy and how we intend to grow participation
• Project Example

4. Swimming; an inclusive sport?
• Swimming is a fantastic way to keep fit, healthy and active.
• Swimming is great for relaxation and a less risky fitness activity.
• Swimming can provide deeper rewards particularly for those people who
are living with impairments
• Once in the water, swimming can offer independence, empowerment and
a deep social connection
• Swimming is the most inclusive physical activity for anyone, of any age, of
any ability, and this is why the ASA is working so hard to create a nation of
swimmers

5. Swimming Participation
• Swimming is England’s most popular sport, followed by
athletics, cycling and football
• About 2.5 million adults taking part at least once a week
• Swimming: all swimming and diving (indoor and outdoor),
water polo, deep water swimming, open water

6. Behaviour Change Insight

7. Growing Swimming Participation
Increase swimming’s
visibility and relevance
Frontier 1
Critical to address
ALL 3 FRONTIERS
to bring in new
audiences and
retain existing
audiences
Improve the overall
swimming environment
Frontier 2
Tailor the swimming
offer to different
needs
Frontier 3

8. ASA commitment to E&D
• The ASA is fully committed to the principles and practice of equality
of opportunity for all. We consider the aquatic disciplines to
provide sport for all. They can and should be made accessible to
everyone, to the greatest extent possible.
– Advanced Equality Standard
– English Federation of Disability Sport Charter for Change
– Signatory to the LGB&T Sports Charter For Action
– Stonewall Diversity Champions Programme
– Sporting Equals seLeaderboard

9. Advanced Equality Standard
• Standard established jointly by each of the home nation
Sports Councils as a benchmark for sport governing bodies
to which they provide funding.
• The ASA is already the proud holder of the Foundation,
Preliminary and Intermediate Standards for Equality
• We are currently working to achieve the Advanced Equality
Standards for Sport.

10. Advanced Equality Standard
Internally, we are aiming to;
– Increase staff understanding of and commitment to equality and inclusion
– Embed equality and inclusion throughout day to day practise
– Introduce specific programmes to drive diversity throughout:
• Board and regional level
• Volunteering
• Teaching and coaching
• Participation

11. What do we do as a H&W team?
• Developed an effective process for project delivery:
– Encourage operators to review activity across all 3 frontiers
– Identify key areas for improvement
– Implement interventions at site level
– Support operators to identify and work closer with non-traditional partners
– Promote the health benefits of swimming in the right way to the right audience
– Enhance user experience
• Developed a sustainable model from which to rollout nationally:
– Establish a locally focussed steering group with emphasis on non-traditional partners
– Work with key decision makers at individual site level
– Local delivery focus with local partners in order to reach the right audiences

12. Challenges
• Educating the industry in a new way of working
• Relationship with pool operators
• Educating delivery team to become consultants
• Driving change at the local level with national level buy in
• Ongoing challenges of sourcing funding

13. Swim London
2016

14. SwimLondon2016
• Awarded funding from Sport England and Greater London Authority Major
Events Engagement Fund application.
• The key focus of this project is to replicate and upscale the Swim Dem Crew
social model of learning to swim, in order to teach people living in the local
area to the London Aquatics Centre to swim.
• We want to empower these participants to have the confidence to take part in
aquatics and become swimming champions within their community and within
their own families.

15. Project Aims
• To teach 225 currently inactive adults to learn to swim confidently over three 12 week
learn to swim programmes in the lead up to the EAC 2016, and beyond, in order to
encourage a transition along the behaviour change journey towards participation and
advocacy, and create a swimming habit for life.
• To train a group of currently inactive swimmers over a 14 week learn to swim programme
to be able to swim 50m in the LAC during the LEN European Aquatics Championships.
• To provide teacher training to existing swimming teachers in terms of how to teach
swimming the Swim Dem way.
• To provide teacher and lifeguard training to a number of project participants in order to
continue the project legacy after the major event.

16. Progress to date
• Delivering at 6 sites across 5 boroughs
• 225 swimmers taught overall
• All recruitment done through social media
• 16 x new L1 and 4 x L2 teachers so far
• 22nd May engagement event and awards at LEN European
Aquatics Championships
• Fantastic media engagement; BBC London, BBC 5 Live

17. Adult Social
Swimming

18. National Aims
1. Review and launch the new Adult Learn to Swim
pathway based on the learnings from Swim London
2016
2. Educate the current swim teaching workforce on how
to deliver more effectively and efficiently to adults
3. Develop a national programme targeting more
swimmers from diverse backgrounds to take up
teaching swimming as a viable career opportunity
4. Increase adult swimming participation through
engaging swimmers from diverse backgrounds in a long
term, sustainable way

19. Local Aims
• Link with the Swimming Trust to deliver subsided L1 & L2 teaching courses
• Work with key partners to help direct teacher recruitment in new projects
• Integrate new Adult Learn to Swim lessons into pool programme
• Integrate new teachers into teaching new Adult Learn to Swim lessons
• Targeted community outreach to promote new lessons and teachers
• Marked difference in diversity of those attending adult lessons
• Wider impact on general participation in the rest of the swimming timetable
RUBINA VIDEO

20. In summary…
• ASA is fully committed to driving inclusion and diversity
• We are making huge changes both internal and externally
• Leading the industry in our approach and model of delivery
• Reversed the decline in participation
• Onwards and upwards!

21. Top Tips!
• Do more to reach out to other communities – you never know
what you might find!
• Invest in understanding potential barriers and motivations in
detail
• Co-create solutions with target audiences
• Invest the right amount of time and energy at the start
• Do what you can to make your industry as accessible and
inclusive as possible

22. Thank you
Any questions?

23. Jamie Hooper
ASA Health & Wellbeing Manager
jamie.hooper@swimming.org
@just_jamie1990