Following serious allegations of safeguarding failures, including bullying and unsafe coaching practices, Ellesmere College Titans, an elite swimming club located in Shropshire, was disbanded in 2022. However, a new swimming academy, the Ellesmere College Swimming Academy, has been established and given permission to affiliate with Swim England following a review by barrister Katherine Apps KC. The review contains previously unpublished information about Titans, including an independent safeguarding officer’s view that swimmers were so at risk that a death was a possibility at the former club. Despite this, the report concludes that the culture has changed and children now feel safe under the new leadership.
Keith Oddy’s report, published as part of the review, stated that Titans’ culture represented the “highest broad risk of harm to children” he had ever seen. Ms Apps, however, has stated that her decision to allow the academy to affiliate with Swim England was a “close balance,” but the head coach, Guy Worrow, and the acting head teacher at the college, Vicky Pritt-Roberts, had shown evidence of tackling safeguarding issues and putting children’s welfare first. Coach Danny Proffitt, among the two suspended following the Titans investigation, has also undergone change and improved his coaching approach.
The report highlights the serious allegations that led to Titans’ demise, including management’s failure to report “a number of children’s attempted suicides, self-harming, drug use, physical assaults, sexual offences involving children and fat/body shaming often linked with a concerning weighing regime with associated eating disorders” to Swim England. Additional allegations included racist and homophobic comments, personal remarks, humiliation, lack of treatment/empathy, sexual comments, direct messaging of children, and coaches getting other swimmers to ‘spy’ and report on children.
Despite the conclusion being good news for swimmers, parents, and the college, it is important to note that the review confirmed the serious allegations of safeguarding failures that led to Titans’ closure. Ellesmere College’s previous headmaster, the late Brendan Wignall, had sought to minimize these allegations, and the college had even threatened to sue Swim England for defamation following Titans’ closure. The report also reveals that the college’s deputy head, Ranjit Chatterjee, who had been Titans’ welfare officer, was barred from being involved in swimming activities post-investigation and did not have adequate safeguarding procedures in place.
However, in response to the review, the college has welcomed the approval of the affiliation application by the Swim England Board, which will allow children to compete under the college name again, be fully insured, and have access to all Swim England processes. The new club has agreed to conditions, including appointing two new welfare officers and carrying out welfare surveys with members every six to 12 months. Although some parents have launched personal attacks and victim-blaming towards the review, Ms Apps urges caution towards those claiming any issues were “historic.
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