Unfortunately, hundreds of children and young people come into care each week, all within the Sutton area of London. This is because they cannot be looked after by their own families – for a variety of reasons. It could be because of conflict within the family home, meaning that children need to be temporarily removed while that conflict is resolved. It could also be due to an illness, meaning that parents or guardians are physically unable to meet the needs of their children. Unfortunately, it could also be because of abuse or neglect. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Sutton to provide a safe and caring home to these children.

You don’t need any previous experience to start fostering in Sutton, 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 Fostering Sutton Team!

Why foster in Sutton 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 South London, we work closely with Sutton London Borough Council in order to support with finding foster homes for children and young people. As a charity, we ensure that any surplus income is ploughed right back into providing exceptional support and training for our fostering households. This enables our foster carers to truly change young people’s lives.

Our commitment to the children we provide care for has lead us to go above and beyond of what is required of a fostering charity. Our education service, health service and foster carer portal are just some of the additional support resources that we offer. We even look after young people after they have left us, in the form of our TACT Connect service – ensuring that 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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“The support is always there. TACT offers around the clock support and a multitude of training courses to help you become the best carer you can be.”

– TACT Foster Carer

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We are currently looking for foster carers in and around Sutton. Other areas include: The Wrythe, Cheam, Wallington, Benhilton – and many other areas in the region.

We have a great team of staff within the Sutton area. Christine McGillvary, our area manager for the area, is truly passionate about making a difference to children’s lives. She manages our great team of social workers in London and the South East – 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 Sutton with full training, 24/7 support and a generous fostering allowance:

Fostering Sutton allowance

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

TACT is part-funded by Sutton London Borough Council in order to help find well-matched foster homes for young people in the area. As a charity, part of this funding is allocated to provide a fostering allowance for our Fostering Sutton team of carers. The actual allowance that you will receive as a foster carer will be dependant 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 Fostering Sutton allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:

 

Full training

To join our team of foster carers, you don’t need any previous formal training, however some childcare experience is preferred. Our training will ensure that you are fully prepared to care for children in your home.

The initial course that you will take is called Skills To Foster. This is delivered within the foster carer assessment period, giving you an insight into fostering at an early stage. It will also provide plenty of opportunities to ask any questions you may have. When you become an approved foster carer, you will be allocated a full training programme to further your skills – helping you to 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, we ensure that you have a robust support network around you. We reinvest surplus income into providing a number of different support platforms for you to access.

When you start fostering with us, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will provide most of the support you require. However, we ensure that support can be accessed 24/7 via our out-of-hours service, along with additional platforms to help 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. Support will be provided by your own Supervising Social Worker, along with our out-of-hours service for total peace of mind.
• Foster carer portal. An online service, and a place to find advice, information, training and other resources to help support you.
• Education service. Our dedicated service provides advice and support to help ensure that the children in your care receive the best possible educational opportunities.
• Health service. Our specialised health service was established to provide young people in your care with ongoing physical and mental health care monitoring.
• Support groups. Our support groups operate in various locations in South London – to provide you with an opportunity to meet other foster carers in your area. A place to 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. On occasion, 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 a number of reasons why people who are already approved foster carers in the Sutton area may look to transfer from their local authority or agency. If you are currently a foster carer in Sutton, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

If you have children already in placement, transferring is still possible – we would just need to ensure that the child(ren) come first in all decisions. Therefore, we would work very closely with you and your previous agency or local authority to ensure stability and consistency of care.

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