Many children and young people in Hampshire sadly come into care every day. Family conflicts and even illness can be some of the reasons why children are unable to live with their own families, but the main reason is neglect or abuse. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Hampshire to provide safe and caring homes to these children.

Full foster carer training will be provided, so no previous childcare experience is necessary. 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 Fostering Hampshire Team!

Why foster in Hampshire 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 our team of foster carers.

Our role is to work closely with Hampshire County Council to provide excellent child-to-foster carer matching. Our team of foster carers in the Hampshire area are provided with local training and support to be able to facilitate this. We go over and above of what is required of a fostering charity, such as providing 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 for life.

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

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“We liked TACT due to its charity status. I then read some very interesting articles written by the Chief Executive, and felt that he had a real passion for improving children’s services.”

– Foster Carer (South of England)

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We are currently looking for new foster carers in all areas in and around Hampshire, including: Havant, Rushmoor, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, Hart – and many more areas in the region.

We have a great team of staff within the Hampshire 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 Hampshire with full training, 24/7 support and a generous Hampshire fostering allowance:

Hampshire Fostering Allowance

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

We are funded directly from Hampshire County Council. This funding supports our service, and our team of foster carers. If you join our Fostering Hampshire team, the total fostering allowance that you will receive will depend on factors such as the type of foster care you choose to provide, the number of young people that you care for, their age(s) and the complexity of their needs.

There are also 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 Hampshire Fostering Allowance 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.

Our initial training is called Skills To Foster, and is taken within the foster carer assessment period. This training is delivered remotely via a video conferencing platform.  You are then allocated a full training programme to further your skills – helping you care for, and make a difference to, more children and young people. Some of this training will be face-to-face, and delivered local to you in Hampshire. Other training will be accessible online.

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

24/7 support

As a member of our Fostering Hampshire team, it is important that support is delivered at a local level. Therefore, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will be on hand to support you in your fostering journey.  Our Supervising Social Workers have manageable workloads, so that they are able to dedicate more time to you. 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 Supervising Social Worker will provide most of your support, but we also have a dedicated out-of-hours support service for total peace of mind.
• 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. Our specialist service provides support and advice to help ensure that the children in your care receive the best possible educational opportunities.
• Health service. A service to provide young people in your care with full and ongoing physical and mental health monitoring.
• Support groups. Our support groups operate in Hampshire and surrounding areas, providing you with a local platform to meet other carers in your area, and share experiences and knowledge. Many of our carers make new friends at these meetings.
• Support for young people. Our Children’s Resource Workers provide the children in your care with additional support, activities and events local to Hampshire.
• 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 a number of reasons why people who are already foster carers in Hampshire may look to transfer from their local authority or agency. If this is the case, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

You can even transfer to us with children already in placement. In all situations, the wellbeing of the child will always come first, so ensuring stability and consistency continues for the child or young person is something we would work very closely with you on.

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