Fostering in Bedfordshire can change children and young people’s lives. If you have been thinking about becoming a foster carer for some time, or if this is the first time you have considered it, we are here to provide you with all the information you require to start your fostering journey.

Fostering involves providing safe, stable and caring homes to vulnerable children for a certain length of time. As a foster carer, you can choose how you want to make a difference, as there are different types of foster care. Above all, fostering is rewarding. It is about empowering young people to change their own lives for the better, and many of our existing foster carers have shared the most inspiring stories of how young people have thrived in their care. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Bedfordshire in order to provide care and guidance for these vulnerable young people.

In order to start your fostering journey, there are some initial requirements to fulfil. They are:

• To have at least one spare bedroom in your home
• To be aged 21 years or over (there is no upper age limit)
• To be a full time resident of the UK

We are often asked if previous training or experience is required. Whilst some experience of caring for children would be preferable, we provide full and ongoing training to all our foster carers. You may even have some transferable skills already, such as working with or caring for vulnerable children. Whatever your background, foster carers come from all walks of life and this is something that we truly embrace at TACT. Additionally, we are a charity – so we reinvest surplus income into providing more support and training for our fostering households.

You could join our Fostering Bedfordshire team and make a real difference to children’s lives.

Why foster in Bedfordshire with TACT?

TACT is the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity. We have been providing nurturing and caring homes for vulnerable children since 1993.

We work closely with Central Bedfordshire local authority to help find caring homes for children and young people. We can only do this with a fantastic team of foster carers – and that’s where you come in. As well as investing surplus income into providing more training and support for our fostering households, we provide additional support over and above what is required of a fostering charity. That’s why we developed our dedicated education service, health service and online foster carer portal.

Additionally, our TACT Connect service ensures that when young people leave our care, they continue to receive our support into adulthood.

This is why 96% of our carers would recommend us to others thinking of fostering.

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“I’d recommend becoming a TACT foster carer. They have always given us the support we need to make a real difference to the lives of some amazing young people.”

– TACT Foster Carer (East Midlands)

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We cover a wide area in and around Bedfordshire, including Kempston, Cranfield, Shefford, Ampthill – and many other areas in the region.

We have a great team of staff within the Bedfordshire area. Ramona Catarig, our area manager for the area, is truly passionate about improving the lives of children and young people. She manages our great team of social workers in the East Midlands – ensuring that our team of foster parents are fully supported. Ramona has over 21 years’ experience as a social worker, working in Local Authority Children and Young People teams and mainstream and therapeutic Fostering teams. She joined TACT in 2014.

We provide our foster carers with full training, 24/7 support and a generous fostering Bedfordshire allowance:

Fostering Bedfordshire Fees & Allowances

Foster carers are highly skilled people, and our fostering allowances reflect this.

There are two elements that make up the allowance you will receive:

• A fee that is, in effect, a payment to you for caring for children in your home.
• An allowance for each child you provide care for. This will cover various expenses that you will incur during your day-to-day life as a foster carer.

The actual fee and allowance that you will receive will be dependent on factors such as the type of foster care you are providing, the actual number of children that you care for, their age(s), as well as the complexity of their needs. You will also only receive fees and allowances when you have a young person placed with you.

There are also a number of additional payments that you will receive, such as payments for children’s birthdays, holidays and religious festivals. In addition to your fostering allowance, we also pay long service awards and Refer a Friend fees (if you recommend someone who then goes on to be an approved foster carer with us).

Here are some examples of the weekly fostering Bedfordshire fees & allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

 

Full training

As previously mentioned, you do not need any training to begin your fostering journey – as we will provide you with full and ongoing training at no cost to you.

The first training course you will undertake is called Skills To Foster. This is delivered remotely, and will be timetabled early in your foster carer application period. This is to give you a balanced and informative picture of what fostering entails, to enable you to fully assess whether becoming a foster carer is the right decision for you. You will get to meet some of our existing foster carers, and there will be plenty of opportunities to ask as many questions as you like.

When you become an approved foster carer, you will be allocated a full training programme to further your skills – helping you care for, and make a difference to, more children and young people.

We even provide specialist training in order to help you care for children with specific needs or requirements.

24/7 support

When you become a foster carer with TACT, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will support you on your fostering journey. Our social workers have manageable workloads, allowing them to devote more time to you. In addition, our dedicated out-of-hours support service will provide you with peace of mind around the clock.

We reinvest any surplus income into additional support platforms to further support you. After all, the better we support you, the better you will be able to provide the care and guidance required to change children’s lives.

This is what we provide:

• Full 24/7 support. Provided by your own allocated Supervising Social Worker, along with our 24/7 out-of-hours support service.
• Foster carer portal. An online portal, providing information, advice and training to help you with your day-to-day life as a foster carer.
• Education service. Ensuring that the young people in your care receive the educational opportunities they are entitled to.
• Health service. Our health service was established in order to provide young people in your care with ongoing physical and mental health monitoring.
• Support groups. Our support groups operate all over Bedfordshire, and provide you with a local outlet to meet other carers in your area, share experiences and knowledge, and even make new friends!
• Support for young people. Our Children’s Resource Workers provide the children in your care with additional support, activities and events.
• Supporting your own children. Your own children play an important role in the fostering household. As such, our Children Who Foster events provide your children with an opportunity to socialise with other young people who make an amazing contribution to fostering.
• Peer support. Sometimes, peer-to-peer support may be available. These work by pairing newly approved foster carers with experienced TACT carers to provide another level of support.

Transferring to TACT

There are many reasons why current foster carers may wish to transfer from their local authority or agency. If you are currently a foster carer in Bedfordshire, we can help by providing a ‘fast track’ application process. This helps to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

Transferring to us with young people already in placement is totally possible – we would just need to ensure that the wellbeing of the child(ren) comes first. We would work closely with you and your existing fostering provider to ensure a smooth transition.

If you are interested in finding out more about transferring to us, simply select ‘I am currently a foster carer’ on our form. We will then be able to talk you through the process in more detail.

A fostering charity that goes above and beyond…

• Our foster carer perks include a number of exclusive memberships and special offers – many of which are available via our Foster Carer Portal.
• Our TACT Connect service ensures that our care leavers continue to receive help, support and guidance even after they have officially left our care.
• We advocate for young people, actively campaigning in order to instigate positive change within the care system.

Start your fostering journey in Bedfordshire today, and change a child’s life. Simply fill in the form on this page to get started!