Children’s lives are changed by foster carers every day. If you have been thinking about fostering in Haringey, you could make a real difference to the lives of young people in your local area.

Fostering involves providing stable, safe and caring homes to vulnerable children. This could be for a short period of time, or could be until the young person reaches independence. You can choose how you want to make a difference, as there are different types of foster care. Fostering is rewarding  – and many of our foster carers share the most inspiring stories of how a young person has thrived in their care. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Haringey in order to provide care and guidance for these vulnerable young people.

To begin 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
• To be a full time resident of the UK

You may be surprised to learn that you don’t need any formal childcare qualifications to start your fostering journey. Some experience of working with, or caring for, children is preferred – but you will be provided with full and ongoing training. We are a charity, so we reinvest surplus income into providing more support and training for our fostering households.

You could join our Haringey Fostering team and change children’s lives.

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 Haringey with TACT?

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

As a fostering charity, we provide a service to Haringey London Borough Council – helping to find caring homes for young people. Our team of foster carers in Haringey and surrounding areas ensure that children receive the very best of care. To support with this, we reinvest our surplus income into providing more training and support for our fostering households. 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 for life.

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

---

“I chose to foster with TACT because I liked the fact that they are a charity and since the beginning they have proved to be very helpful and supportive whenever needed.”

– TACT Foster Carer (London)

---

We cover a wide area in and around the London Borough of Haringey, including Muswell Hill, Crouch End, Wood Green, Tottenham – and many other areas in the borough.

We have a great team of staff who provide support to our foster carers in the Borough of Haringey. Priscilla Makambe, our area manager for the area, started working for TACT in 2019. Priscilla previously worked in Local Authority Child Protection and Children with Disabilities Teams before moving into fostering more than 15 years ago.

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

Haringey Fostering Allowances

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

Our fostering allowance is made up of two elements: a foster carer fee that is, in effect, your fee for caring for children in your home. The second element is an allowance for each child you provide care for – to cover various expenses that you may incur. The actual allowance that you will receive will be dependent on a number of factors – such as the type of foster care you are providing, the number of children that you care for, their age, as well as the complexity of their needs.

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 Haringey fostering allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

 

Full training

To begin your Haringey fostering journey, no previous training is required. Some experience of working with or caring for children is advantageous, but we provide all our foster carers with full and ongoing training.

The initial course is called Skills To Foster. Taken remotely over three days within the assessment period, the course is designed to provide a balanced and informative picture of what fostering entails. 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 TACT foster carer, you will be assigned your own Supervising Social Worker who will help and support you on your fostering journey. All 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.

Because we are a charity, we reinvest any 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 dedicated Supervising Social Worker, along with our 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 Haringey 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 Haringey, 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 Haringey today, and change a child’s life. Simply fill in the form on this page to get started!