About the organisation
The national curriculum expects every child to swim 25 metres by the end of primary school. Public pools keep closing, so more and more schools are bringing the pool to the children: a temporary pool built on school grounds for a few weeks of lessons. Thousands of children learn to swim this way.
The operators who build and run those pools grew fast, and they grew on their own. No one shared standard, no agreed view on governance, and no single voice. From the outside, a good operator and a poor one look exactly the same. Heads can’t tell them apart, and neither can funders.
The Every Child Swims Foundation is here to fix that. We’re a community interest company (company number 16777566), set up by three temporary pool operators: Swim:ED, Mobile Pools UK and ELITE Sports UK. We have three jobs, and we keep them apart. We raise and manage money for school swimming, under independent control so funders can trust it. We set a quality standard and accredit operators against it, judged by people who aren’t being judged. And we speak for the operators who meet that standard.
The founders keep seats on our board. They don’t vote on funding or accreditation. That’s the whole design, and it only matters when independent trustees are in the room. That’s why we’re recruiting.
We’re early, and we’d rather say so up front. The company, the bank account and a Register of Interests for every director are in place. Our safeguarding policy is in draft. The standard itself isn’t written yet. Join now and you’ll shape all of this rather than inherit it.
Our aim is simple. Every child who learns to swim in a temporary pool should be safe and well taught, and their school should be able to prove it.
About the role
You’d be one of the first independent trustees on a new board, and the person the rest of us look to on money.
This is an ongoing board seat, not a project. There are four board meetings a year, mostly online, plus reading time. Expect about half a day a month. There’s no finance committee yet. If the board needs one, you’d help set it up and most likely chair it.
What you’d lead on in your first year:
- Financial controls for a new organisation. Every payment from our bank account already needs two signatures. You’d help write the rest: who can approve what, how grants are paid and checked, and how money is reported to the board.
- Our first accounts. Our first year ends on 31 October 2026, and we must file the accounts with Companies House by 10 July 2027, along with the community interest company report. You won’t be doing the bookkeeping. You’ll make sure the board signs off on accounts it understands.
- Build a first budget and a reserves policy from scratch.
- Keeping money meant for schools clearly separate from the operators who founded us. Funders will ask how we prevent conflicts of interest. You’re the person who can answer that with numbers.
- Deciding what independent checks our accounts need. As a small company, we’re likely exempt from an audit, but funders may still expect a review.
One condition, and we mean it. No current or past paid relationship with any temporary pool operator, and no role at a school that buys from one. We’d rather leave the seat empty than fill it with somebody who can’t say no.
The role is unpaid, with expenses covered. If you haven’t been a trustee before, we’ll pay for your training.
To apply, email Andy Heald, our Programme Lead, at andy@sportivityconsultants.com with a CV or LinkedIn profile and a short note. Tell us one thing you’d want to put right in your first six months. Closing date: Friday 30th October 2026, with conversations in the week of 9 November.
Our ideal candidate
You know money; you can explain it to people who don’t, and you’re comfortable asking the awkward question.
Essential:
- A finance background you can stand behind. A qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA or similar), or someone who has run the finances of a small organisation for some years.
- Confidence reading small company accounts and explaining them in plain English to a board of non-accountants.
- Full independence from the temporary pool sector, as set out above.
- The nerve to challenge three founders in a meeting, and the manner to keep working well with them afterwards.
Desirable:
- Experience in a charity, CIC or other not-for-profit, especially one that handles grants.
- Experience with funders, from setting up grant controls to reporting back on how money was spent.
- Time on a board as a trustee, treasurer or governor. Not essential. A first-time trustee with the right finance background is very welcome.
- An interest in schools, sport or keeping children safe.
You don’t need to know anything about swimming pools. Technical experts sit on a separate advisory panel with no vote.
What’s in it for you
Most finance volunteers join an existing board with policies already in place. This is a chance to set up a new organisation's finances properly from day one, and to know the controls are right because you built them.
The reason it matters is plain. Children learn to swim in these pools on school grounds across the country. When the money behind that is properly controlled and checked, more of it reaches the children, and funders are willing to give more.
You’d join a small board alongside an independent Chair and trustees for safeguarding and schools, all recruited now. Founding trustee experience is hard to come by: setting up the first controls, producing the first set of accounts, and having the first conversations with funders. It’s the kind of board experience that stands out on a CV.
The timing helps too. School sport funding changes from 2027, and a new national primary swimming programme is being written for late 2027. The board you join will be building something credible while those decisions are made.
We’ll pay for trustee training if you need it and cover your expenses. Meetings are mostly online, so it fits around a day job.
Apply for the role
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