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Read for Free: 2025 State of the UK Swim Industry Report

INSIGHT & ANALYSIS

DAVE CANDLER

Collaboration is finally coming to the swimming sector and it’s already paying dividends, says the CEO of the STA

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“Over the years of working in the swimming sector, I’ve seen good intentions across the board of the many organisations operating within it,” says Dave Candler, CEO of the STA. “Mission statements and strategy announcements have focused on the challenges of inclusivity, diversity, inequality in pool access, rising costs, wages, staff shortages and so on. The desire to make a difference has always been evident. “Yet historically, despite these good intentions, nothing really came of it. PR never became widespread practice. Awareness of the challenges never really morphed into sustainable, sector-wide action.

“And for me, it all stemmed from the fact that each organisation was trying to solve the sector’s challenges on its own, which wasn’t realistic. None of us are big enough to do this: not the STA, not Level Water, not Swim England, RLSS, BSA or any of the other bodies working in this sector. And certainly none of us were going to achieve anything without the operators, the training providers, the delivery partners or the people on the ground… teachers, swim schools, local communities. We all need each other. “Yet for too many years, efforts were fragmented, with organisations often acting alone rather than aligning strategies. This made co-ordinated progress difficult.