Sutton & Cheam Swimming Club first achieved Swim21 Accreditation in 2009 and has been reaccredited each year since then.

In May 2013, the Criteria for Swim21 Accreditation changed and the club was required to go through the Accreditation process again from scratch and was successful in achieving the new Award "Swim21 club Essential" in December 2013; and is required to be revalidated annually thereafter.

Swim21 has continued to develop and during 2017, Swim21 was relaunched by Swim England as SwimMark.

SwimMark (was Swim21) Club Essential Accreditation is a 'Quality mark', specifically designed for all ASA clubs, which recognises nationally and regionally the clubs that are committed to providing safe, effective and quality services for the benefit of their members.

SwimMark Club Essential Accreditation is the ASA's Club Development model - a planning tool, based on the principles of Long Term Athlete Development, enabling clubs to help athletes, teachers, coaches and administrators to achieve their full potential. It focuses particularly on the needs of athletes - striving to provide them with the best possible support and environment.

SwimMark Club Essential is a key module which support clubs to grow membership, develop volunteers and ensure the sustainability of activity in line with the objective of the club.

Clubs work steadily towards the attainment of a series of outcomes all of which are seen as essential if the right level of support is to be provided at each stage of an athlete's development.

What do Clubs have to do?

Clubs aiming to achieve SwimMark standards must first complete an audit of all their programmes and structures against a series of quality criteria that are linked to nationally determined outcomes of good practice.

Then, based on their findings clubs must then produce an Improvement Plan that details the steps they need to take to address the gaps in their provision.

Finally, when they feel these gaps have been addressed, they then apply to become an ASA SwimMark Accredited Club by contacting their Regional Swimming Co-ordinator.

How Are Clubs Assessed?

Clubs are then assessed against five distinct criteria:

• Governance (emphasis on good club management)
• Workforce Development (focus on training and development of people within the club)
• Athlete Development (concentration on the needs of the swimmer or water polo player)
• Communications (with members, parents, workforce, community)
• Partnerships (with schools, community, other clubs etc.)

Each year clubs are required to carry out a 'Health Check' to maintain and update their action plans and to resubmit them to the London Region and ASA SwimMark panels for approval.

What is Sport England’s Clubmark?

Clubmark is a cross-sport quality accreditation for clubs with junior sections, and signifies the Club’s commitment to being a safe, effective and child-friendly sports club.
SwimMark is recognised by Sport England as a Clubmark accredited scheme and therefore all clubs gaining SwimMark accreditation automatically receive Clubmark status

Where do we go from here?

Sutton & Cheam Swimming Club is very proud of its SwimMark achievements but it doesn't just end there.

SwimMark is now fully embedded within the Club and is simply part of what we do; the everyday job of providing a rewarding and challenging environment for our 350+ swimmers and water polo players; supported by more than 40 volunteers.

Our aim is to continuously develop our swimming and water polo programmes and SwimMark provides the framework for that development.