Pembrokeshire County Swimming has achieved Performance Level 4 in the national quality assurance scheme ‘Dragonmark’.
The County Council’s swimming development service has already achieved ‘trailblazer’ status as a result of the improvements made to learn-to-swim and aquatic activities.
Achieving Performance Level 4 builds on the recent success of swimmers of Pembrokeshire County Swimming, and the hard work of volunteers within the development swimming clubs.
Level 4 is the second-highest stage possible – Level 5 would require swimmers to be competing for Olympic and Commonwealth places.
Paul Dowey, Swimming Development Coach, has led the process in partnership with Swim Wales, local development clubs, and the local authority assessment completed by Swim Wales and recognised by the Sport Wales formerly known as the sports council.
Dragonmark is a quality assurance scheme covering the aquatics pathway, including:
- Strategic planning and water management
- Developing Authority-wide competition structure
- Developing the workforce through education and training
- Quality provision of learn to swim and school swimming
- Developing and formalising links with competitive swimming clubs
- Developing of performance and elite level swimming
Chris Weller, Regional Development Officer for Swim Wales, said the achievement was due to the ‘excellent work regarding the provision, development and delivery of swimming and aquatic activities within Pembrokeshire‘.
“Along with recent successes in restructuring the development pathway from the very beginnings up to performance level, this is further proof of the importance of teamwork which has again involved individuals from each development club, the Local Authority, and Swim Wales,” he said.
“The process has been fronted extremely well by Paul Dowey, my congratulations to him and the team as a whole.
“I view Pembrokeshire as a model of good practice in swimming and aquatic delivery, and look forward to working with all involved in future ventures.”
