Australia Guide

Child safeguarding and the National Integrity Framework

Child safeguarding in Australian swimming runs through the National Integrity Framework, a set of policies developed by Sport Integrity Australia and adopted by Swimming Australia on 15 June 2022. It is not a document for head office alone. It applies at every level of the sport, community clubs included, and it gives a club committee real obligations: publish the policies, name someone to handle welfare and complaints, screen everyone in a child-related role, and know which complaints leave your club entirely. This guide explains each of those in plain language.

The short answer

The National Integrity Framework is a set of policies that sports adopt to manage integrity threats and to create safe, fair and inclusive sporting environments. Sport Integrity Australia, an independent government agency, develops and maintains it. Swimming Australia is one of the sports signed up to it, with a commencement date of 15 June 2022, and the policy set Swimming Australia currently publishes has been in force since 1 January 2024.

For a club committee, four things follow from that. Your club is covered by the policies whether or not anyone has read them. You are expected to have your own safeguarding policy, published where a parent can find it, and someone named to receive concerns. Everyone in a child-related role needs the screening check that applies in your state or territory, recorded and kept current. And serious complaints do not stay inside the club: child abuse allegations go to Sport Integrity Australia, not to your committee.

What is the National Integrity Framework?

Sport Integrity Australia describes the Framework as a set of policies sports can adopt to help manage integrity threats, aimed at preventing harm, protecting participants and creating safe, fair and inclusive sporting environments. The important part for a club is the reach: the Framework applies to all levels of sport, from community clubs to national level, by providing clear and consistent rules around acceptable behaviour. It also sets out reporting pathways for child safeguarding, participant protection, competition manipulation and complaints handling.

The Framework launched in 2021 and now consists of five policies that work together.

How Swimming Australia applies it

Each sport adopts the Framework into its own rulebook, so what your club is bound by is Swimming Australia's version of it. Swimming Australia states that its National Integrity Framework applies to all activities organised or authorised by Swimming Australia or a Member Organisation. In practice that takes in your club, your state or territory association, and the carnivals and club nights you run.

Swimming Australia publishes six documents rather than five. Alongside the Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy, the Improper Use of Drugs and Medicine Policy, the Competition Manipulation and Sport Gambling Policy and the Complaints, Disputes and Discipline Policy, it publishes a Member Protection Policy and its own Code of Conduct. These have been in force since 1 January 2024.

If you compare that list against Sport Integrity Australia's five, the names do not line up exactly. That is normal, and it is also a useful signal: policy names and versions drift as the Framework is reviewed, so the list on Swimming Australia's own page is the one to work from, not a summary elsewhere. See the section on the 2027 deadline below, because this is about to matter more than usual.

Where a complaint actually goes

This is the part committees most often get wrong, and it is the part with the highest stakes. Under the Framework a complaint can be made either to Sport Integrity Australia or to the Swimming Australia integrity team, and the subject of the complaint decides which. A club committee is not the right destination for a serious allegation, and treating it as an internal matter is itself a failure.

Two things are worth saying plainly. First, if you see or suspect that a child is being harmed or is at risk, report it immediately rather than waiting for a committee meeting. Second, these integrity pathways sit alongside, and never replace, your obligations to the police and to the child protection authority in your state or territory.

What your club is expected to have in place

Sport Integrity Australia sets out what sporting associations and clubs should have, and none of it requires a legal budget. It requires a committee that has actually done it.

Working With Children Checks

A Working With Children Check, or its local equivalent, is required where an organisation seeks to engage a person in child-related work. Sport Integrity Australia puts three duties on the organisation itself, not on the individual: comply with your state or territory's requirements, do not engage a person in a child-related position who has not met those requirements, and maintain accurate records of checks.

That middle duty is the one that catches clubs out. It is a rule about when someone may start, not about paperwork you catch up on later, so a new coach or team manager should not be on deck with junior swimmers before their check is confirmed.

The checks themselves are not national. Each state and territory runs its own scheme under its own law, and they differ in name, cost, validity period and exactly who needs one. In New South Wales the Working with Children Check is issued by the Office of the Children's Guardian and a clearance lasts five years, with applications free for volunteers. In Queensland the equivalent is the blue card, issued by Blue Card Services, and it is valid for three years. A club that assumes one national rule will get the renewal date wrong, so check the scheme where your club is based and confirm the detail with your state or territory association. Our guide to Swimming Australia and the state associations explains who that is.

The policies are changing: the 30 April 2027 deadline

Sport Integrity Australia reviewed the Framework policies in late 2025 in consultation with the sporting sector. The updated policies were introduced to sport in July 2026, and sports have until 30 April 2027 to adopt them. Sport Integrity Australia's own advice is direct: check your sport's national website for its current policies.

For a club committee that means one concrete habit. Do not circulate the copy of the safeguarding policy that has been sitting in the club's shared drive since someone downloaded it. Link to Swimming Australia's page instead, so that whoever reads it gets the version in force at the time, and put a review of the policies on the agenda of a committee meeting between now and April 2027.

A committee checklist

If you want to turn the above into an agenda item, this is the short version.

• Download the current policies from Swimming Australia's National Integrity Framework page rather than reusing a copy saved in a committee folder.
• Publish your club's safeguarding policy somewhere a parent can find it without asking.
• Name a Welfare Officer or Member Protection Information Officer and put their contact details next to the policy.
• List every role at your club that involves contact with junior swimmers, and confirm each person holds a current check for your state or territory.
• Keep an accurate record of those checks and their expiry dates, and diarise renewals before they lapse.
• Make sure your committee knows which complaints go to Sport Integrity Australia and which go to Swimming Australia.
• Put the policies and the reporting route in your new-volunteer induction so it is not a once-a-year conversation.

If your club is new, or new to you, our guide to joining a swimming club in Australia covers how registration and the season fit together, and the rest of our Australian guides cover fees, carnivals and club administration.

Where Swimly fits

Swimly is club management software for the day-to-day running of an Australian swimming club. It does not replace your Swimming Australia affiliation, your Swim Central membership, or any part of the National Integrity Framework, and it is not affiliated with Swimming Australia or Sport Integrity Australia. Safeguarding is a people problem before it is a software problem, and no platform discharges a committee's duties for it.

What software can genuinely help with is the record keeping the Framework asks for. Knowing which roles involve contact with junior swimmers, who holds a current check, and what expires before the next season is exactly the kind of tracking that goes wrong in a spreadsheet maintained by whoever held the role two committees ago. Swimly keeps member records, registrations, billing in AUD and attendance in one place, and your data stays yours to export. You can see what is included on our features page and plans and AUD pricing on our pricing page.

Questions before you start? Email us at hello@swimly.club.

Frequently asked questions

Primary sources

The facts on this page come from Sport Integrity Australia and Swimming Australia. Policies and screening rules are updated over time, and the Framework policies are mid-refresh, so always check the official sources for what applies to your club today.

• Sport Integrity Australia: National Integrity Framework
• Sport Integrity Australia: sports signed to the Framework, including Swimming Australia's commencement date
• Sport Integrity Australia: safeguarding for sporting associations and clubs
• Swimming Australia: Swimming National Integrity Framework and complaint routing
• NSW Office of the Children's Guardian: Working with Children Check
• Queensland Government: blue cards for working with children