Why Foster With TACT?
1. TACT is the UK’s Largest Dedicated Fostering Charity
We are the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity and we’ve been helping to provide loving families for vulnerable children for over 25 years.
As a charity, we put young people at the heart of every decision and we passionately believe that all children deserve to live in loving, safe and stable homes. Unlike some commercial fostering agencies, we are not driven by profit, but by the best possible outcomes, which is why all our surplus income is put back into the services and support that we provide to our carers and young people.
2. We Provide a Voice for Young People
We are passionate about providing a voice for children and young people in care. Their needs and views are at the heart of everything we do. We actively campaign to influence government policies and argue for positive changes that enable young people to achieve their full potential.
TACT are also members of The Alliance for Children in Care and Care Leavers, The Kinship Care Alliance and Stand Up For Siblings.
3. Putting Children First
Children and young people will always come first at TACT. This is why we carefully and expertly match children to our fantastic team of foster carers all over the country. We will never pressure our carers to take a placement just because a bed is available, it’s always about matching each young person with the most suitable carers.
Good matching will help young people to thrive and feel supported and secure in their foster home and helps ensure that placements are stable and long lasting, hopefully minimising the chance of placements from breaking down, which can be emotionally challenging for both the young people and foster carers.
4. 24/7 Foster Carer Support
When a person becomes a foster carer with TACT, we don’t just leave them to get on with it. Every foster carer is assigned their own supervising social worker who will provide support every step of the way. Our social workers will be there right from the start and if our carers ever have any questions, issues or concerns.
We know fostering isn’t a 9-5 job, which is why we offer support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
5. A generous fostering allowance
We know that our foster carers are motivated by improving the lives of children and young people and not by money, but we believe it is important that they are suitably rewarded for their hard work and dedication.
As a foster carer you are carrying out a highly skilled role, and as such receive a weekly fee and fostering allowance when a child is placed with you.
As a foster carer, you would also receive extra payments for the child’s birthday, a festival allowance, holiday allowances and some additional travel costs. Additionally, you will qualify for special tax exemptions and reliefs.
Read more about our fees and allowances here.
6. Comprehensive Training and Development
We are committed to providing our foster carers and staff with the learning and training that enables them to develop their skills, knowledge, and experience.
Our training programmes are designed to suit each individual’s learning needs ensuring that all the courses that are undertaken are relevant and chosen specifically to help you grow in confidence in what you do.
We also ensure that our high quality training is accessible to all of our foster carers and staff. This means you will be able to access learning in a variety of ways, including face to face and online.
7. Developing New Innovative Services
We are always looking for new and innovative ways to provide support to our foster carers and young people. As such, we have recently developed a brand new Education Service which aims to ensure the very best educational outcomes for our children and young people.
We aim to provide better opportunities and brighter futures to all of the children and young people we work with.
8. Supporting Our Care Leavers
Just because young people leave the care system, this shouldn’t mean that they lose our support. That’s why we started our TACT Connect service – a lifetime community to help and support our care leavers.
Our TACT Connect Advisors are care-experienced , meaning they have first-hand knowledge and experience of what it is like to be in care and then to move on to independence. Members have access to number of services and benefits, such as regular meetups, access to free resources and free educational support. We want to ensure that any young people leaving our care still have somewhere to go for support, or simply for a chat.
9. Wide UK Coverage
At TACT, it is important that we’re physically there for our foster carers, as well as being on the end of a telephone. Being the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity means that our teams cover large parts of the UK, so we’re never far away.
Our coverage means that our foster carers have regular visits from social workers, opportunities to take part in local training and events and lots of children’s activities.
10. We’re Partners, Not Providers
We pride ourselves on developing strong partnerships with local authorities across the UK. This means that we get a high volume of placement referrals from local authorities across the country and as a foster carer you can expect regular placements. We have been working with local authorities for over 25 years, developing services that provider brighter futures for children and young people in care or on the edge care.
We have built a reputation for excellence and the provision of quality services through our partnerships. And our not for profit status means that local authorities can be sure that our focus is always on the best outcomes for the children that they place with our foster carers.
