Fostering in Enfield

Foster carers play a vital role in caring for vulnerable children every day. If you have been thinking about fostering in Enfield, you could make a real difference to the lives of young people in your local area.

As a foster carer, you would be providing a safe, stable and nurturing home for vulnerable young people in your care. There is lots of flexibility when it comes to choosing the type of fostering you would like to provide. Above all else, fostering is so rewarding. Many of our foster carers have shared the most inspiring stories of how a young person has thrived in their care. TACT are currently recruiting foster carers in Enfield in order to provide nurturing care and guidance for vulnerable young people.

We are often asked if there are initial requirements in order to start the journey to becoming a foster carer. These requirements are:

To have at least one spare bedroom
To be aged 21 years or over
To be a full time resident of the UK

Although no formal qualifications are required, some experience of caring for young people will be advantageous. Full and ongoing training will be provided for you. We are a charity, so we reinvest surplus income into providing more support and training for our fostering households.

You could join our Enfield Fostering team and change young people’s lives in your area.

TACT foster carers, The Wrights, talk about how proud they are of the young people they have cared for, and about the support they receive from TACT:

Why foster in Enfield with TACT?

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

As a fostering charity, we work closely with Enfield Council to help provide caring homes for young people. We have a great team of foster carers in Enfield and the surrounding areas, who ensure that children receive the very best of care. Our reinvestment of surplus income into providing more training and support is a real asset to our carers, ensuring that they are fully supported and have the knowledge they need to make a difference.

We also provide additional support over and above what is required of a fostering charity, such as 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. Our TACT Connect service ensures that when children leave the care system, they have TACT’s support into adulthood.

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

“If you are thinking about becoming a foster carer then I recommend doing so with TACT, it is like working with extended family. The staff are very accessible, compassionate and child centred.”

– TACT Foster Carer

Enfield Fostering Allowances

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

The fostering allowance is made up of two elements: a foster carer fee that is, in effect, your fee for caring for young people. The second element is an ‘allowance’ for each child you provide care for – to cover various expenses that you may incur such as food or clothing. The actual allowance that you will receive will be fully dependent on the type of foster care you are providing, the number of children that you care for, their age, the complexity of their needs and any other factors specific to that young person.

You will also receive additional payments for children’s birthdays, holidays and religious festivals. In addition to your fostering allowance, 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 Enfield fostering allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

These are examples of our Enfield fostering allowances

Full training

To begin your fostering journey, no previous training is required as we provide all our foster carers with full and ongoing training.

The first course you will take is called Skills To Foster. It is delivered fully remotely by one of our trainers and is designed to provide an early insight into what being a foster carer is like. You will get to meet some of our existing foster carers, and there will be other fostering applicants in the training sessions – enabling you to share thoughts and ideas.

Once approved, 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, and provide any help you need. Our social workers have manageable workloads, allowing them to devote more time to you. In addition, we offer a dedicated out-of-hours support service for total peace of mind.

We reinvest surplus income into other 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. Your own Supervising Social Worker, along with our out-of-hours support service.
Foster carer portal. An online information hub, providing 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 Enfield and North London, 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. 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. In some circumstances, 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 many reasons why current foster carers may wish to transfer from their local authority or agency. If you currently foster in Enfield, or in other areas of North London, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

If you are looking to transfer with young people already in placement, 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 Enfield today, and change a child’s life. Simply fill in the form on this page to get started!