SWIMMING First Individual Sport to Receive Sport NI Endorsement

Sport Northern Ireland (SNI), the Sports Council for all sports in Northern Ireland, has given ClubMark SI, Swim Ireland's (SI's) first ever Club Accreditation Programme, its endorsement. The processes and procedures associated with the ClubMark SI Programme have been found to be in compliance with the guidelines outlined by SNI in order to become Clubmark NI endorsed.

Following a thorough review of the ClubMark SI Operating Protocols and after a license meeting between Charlotte Parker, Director of Education and Development for SI, Simon Toole, Sports Consultant for SNI and Clare MacLeod, National Clubmark Manager, Knight Kavanagh and Page, Swim Ireland becomes the first individual sport across the 32 counties of Ireland to receive recognition from SNI for its Club Accreditation Programme.

With the first stage of the endorsement complete, the remaining stages of endorsement include assessor training, a practical test run through the system with a club for accreditation and the signing of the Clubmark NI Licensing Agreement. Swim Ireland's Education and Development team will be working hard over the next number of months to ensure that these stages are completed in order to receive its Official License Agreement.

The Swim Ireland Club Accreditation Programme, which is open to all member clubs has had twenty clubs sign up to it to date, the first 10 of which will be pilots. Some of the benefits to clubs completing the ClubMark SI Programme include: the development of top quality clubs, raises club's profiles, raises standards within clubs, promotes best practice and strong governance from within clubs, planning tool for clubs and recognises, rewards and promotes clubs for their achievements.