Imagine changing the life of a young person. Imagine being there for when they start school, college or university. Imagine giving them the support to help them find their own feet and gain the confidence they may have lost. Fostering in Hounslow means making a difference to the lives of children in your local area, by providing them with stable, safe and caring homes.

To say that fostering is rewarding is an understatement, and we are proud of our team of foster carers who take vulnerable children into their homes and help turn their life around. You can choose how you want to make a difference, as there are different types of foster care. Children spend different lengths of time in care depending on their circumstances, and whether or not they are able to return to their birth family. Unfortunately, many young people require foster care for long periods due to neglect or abuse. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Hounslow in order to provide care and guidance for these vulnerable young people.

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

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

No formal childcare qualifications are required to start your fostering journey, as full and ongoing training will be provided at no cost to you. Some people have additional existing skills that they can bring to fostering – such as caring for children with a learning or physical disability. As we are a charity, we reinvest surplus income into providing more support and training for our fostering households.

If this sounds like something YOU could do, you could join our Fostering Hounslow team!

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 Hounslow 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 we provide a service to local authorities, we work closely with Hounslow London Borough Council to help find caring homes for children. We can only do this with a fantastic team of foster carers. That’s why 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.

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“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. I will soon be celebrating the marriage of one of my former foster children and I have become a foster grandmother.”

– TACT Foster Carer (London)

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We cover a wide area in and around the London Borough of Hounslow, including Chiswick, Brentford, Isleworth, Feltham – 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 Hounslow. 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 Hounslow fostering allowance:

Hounslow Fostering Allowance

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

Our Hounslow fostering allowance ensures that you receive both a foster carer fee, and an allowance for each child you provide care for. The actual fee and 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 Hounslow fostering allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

 

Full training

To become a foster carer, no previous training is required – although some childcare experience is preferred. Our full training will ensure that you are fully prepared to care for young people in your home.

The first course you will take is called Skills To Foster. This is a three day course, and you will be able to participate remotely. Skills To Foster is delivered early in the initial assessment period to provide a balanced and informative snapshot of what fostering entails. When you become an approved foster carer with us, 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 start fostering with TACT, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will provide most of the support you need. In addition, we offer a full out-of-hours support service for total peace of mind.

We also reinvest surplus income into other platforms to ensure that you always have a support network around you. We understand that 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 Supervising Social Worker, and our dedicated out-of-hours support service.
• Foster carer portal. An online resource and a place to find information, advice and training to help you with your day-to-day life as a foster carer.
• Education service. Our service provides advice and support to help ensure 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 West 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. 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 agency and local authority. If you currently foster in Hounslow, or in other areas of West London, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

You can transfer to us with young people already in placement, but we would just need to ensure that the wellbeing of the child comes first. We would work closely with both you and your existing fostering provider to ensure the smoothest 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 Hounslow today, and change a child’s life. Simply fill in the form on this page to get started!