Many children and young people in Bournemouth require urgent care and guidance, because they are unable to stay with their own families. Some reasons for this are internal family conflicts, or an illness that means their parents or guardians are unable to care for them because they need to stay in hospital for a while. Sadly, the main cause of children coming into care is because of neglect or abuse. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Bournemouth to provide safe and caring homes to these children.

You don’t need any previous experience to start fostering in Bournemouth, as full training will be provided. To start the application process, you just need at least one spare bedroom in your home, a caring and nurturing character – and lots of energy to provide a child with a secure and loving home. If this sounds like something that you could do, you could join our Bournemouth Fostering Team!

Why foster in Bournemouth with TACT?

TACT is the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity – enabling us to provide care for children on a national level. We reinvest any surplus income into providing more support and training for foster carers interested in fostering.

As one of the leading fostering agencies in the area, we work with Bournemouth Borough Council in order to find expertly-matched foster homes. Therefore, fostering with TACT will mean caring for children and young people in your local area. Our reinvestment of surplus income enables us to provide additional support over and above what is expected of a fostering charity. For example, we provide a dedicated education service, health service and an online foster carer portal.

We’re more than just a fostering agency – we go above and beyond to look after our foster carers and the children they provide care for. We also ensure that our care-experienced young people receive support for life, via our TACT Connect service.

This is why 98% of our carers would recommend us to others thinking of fostering.

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“TACT could see my potential as a foster carer and welcomed my application. I have had very good support from TACT – I know that if I need to get in contact at any time the support is there.”

– TACT Foster Carer

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We are currently looking for foster carers in Bournemouth and the surrounding areas. We have a great team of staff within the area. Christine McGillvary, our area manager for the region, is truly passionate about making a difference to children’s lives. She manages our great team of social workers that cover the South Coast – ensuring that our team of foster parents are fully supported. Christine has over 19 years’ experience in fostering, specifically within the charitable sector.

We provide our foster parents in Bournemouth with full training, 24/7 support and a generous fostering allowance:

Bournemouth Fostering Payments

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

We are directly funded by Bournemouth Borough Council in order to assist with the care of children and young people in the area. This funding is distributed between the service we provide, and our fantastic team of foster carers. If you join our fostering team, the actual fostering allowance that you will receive will be dependant on the type of foster care you choose to do, the number of children that you care for, their age and the complexity of their needs.

Our Bournemouth Fostering team also receive additional payments for children’s birthdays, holidays and religious festivals. We also pay long service awards and a Refer a Friend fee (if you recommend someone who then goes on to be an approved foster carer with us).

Here are some examples of the weekly Bournemouth Fostering payments you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

 

Full training

You don’t need any previous experience or training to become a foster carer. Our full training will ensure that you are fully prepared to care for children in your home. We ensure that our training is either provided locally if it is face-to-face, or virtually.

The initial training is called Skills To Foster, and is actually taken within the foster carer assessment period. When you become an approved foster carer with TACT, 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 in the Bournemouth area.

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

24/7 support

In order to help change children’s lives, 24/7 support is essential. We reinvest surplus income into providing more support for our fostering families, ensuring that you are never on your own. When you become an approved TACT foster carer, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker. All our Supervising Social Workers have manageable workloads, so that they are able to dedicate more time to you. We know that the better we support you, the better you will be able to provide the care and guidance required to make a difference to children’s lives.

This is what we provide:

• Full 24/7 support. Your Supervising Social Worker will usually provide all the support you need, but our dedicated out-of-hours support service will ensure that there is always someone available should you require any help or advice.
• Foster carer portal. An online community of TACT foster carers and a place to find information, advice, training and other resources to help you with your day-to-day life as a foster carer.
• Education service. A specialist service that provides support and advice to help ensure that young people in your care receive the best possible educational opportunities.
• Health service. Our health service was started to ensure that the physical and mental health of children in your care is fully monitored.
• Support groups. Our support groups operate in Bournemouth and the surrounding areas. They provide you with a local outlet to meet other carers and share experiences.
• Support for young people. Our Children’s Resource Workers provide the children in your care with additional support, activities and events in Bournemouth.
• Supporting your own children. We understand that your own children play an important role in the fostering household. As such, our Children Who Foster events provide your own 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

We understand that there are a number of reasons why existing foster carers in Bournemouth may look to transfer from their local authority or agency. If you are currently a foster carer, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

If you currently have children in placement, the transfer process will always put the best interests of the child first – in order to ensure that stability and consistency continues for the young person. We would work closely with both you and your existing agency or local authority.

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 Bournemouth today, and change a child’s life. Simply fill in the form on this page to get started!