Imagine changing the lives of children local to you in Wolverhampton. By becoming a foster carer, you could be providing children and young people with caring and supportive homes. Most importantly, you could help them recover from any trauma they may have experienced. Although young people can come into care for short periods of time due to a family illness or a conflict within the family, the most common reason is abuse or neglect. TACT are recruiting foster carers in Wolverhampton in order to provide safe and caring homes for these vulnerable young people.

To begin your fostering journey, no previous childcare experience is necessary as full training will be provided. However, some experience of caring for children will be beneficial. What you will need is at least one spare bedroom in your home, and to be aged 21 or over. Additionally, some personal attributes such as a caring and nurturing character, patience and empathy will be essential as you will be caring for vulnerable young people. If this sounds like something that you could do, you could join our Wolverhampton Fostering Team!

Watch Samantha, one of our West Midlands foster carers, talk about what it is like to be a TACT foster carer:

Why foster in Wolverhampton 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.

We work closely with City of Wolverhampton Council in order to help find caring and nurturing homes in the local area. All our training and support is located in and around Wolverhampton, enabling our foster carers to make a real difference to children’s lives. Our reinvestment of surplus income has enabled us to be able to provide additional support over and above what is required of a fostering charity. These support resources include 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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“The training process supplied by TACT is excellent. The support supplied by TACT is second to none; at no point throughout our fostering process did we feel like we were on our own.”

– Foster Carer (West Midlands)

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We are currently looking for foster carers in and around Wolverhampton, in areas such as: Chapel Ash, Horseley Fields, Blakenhall, Stow Heath – and many other areas in the region.

We have a great team of staff within the Wolverhampton area. Michelle Patterson, our area manager for the West Midlands, is truly passionate about making a difference to children’s lives. She manages our great team of social workers in the area – ensuring that our team of foster carers are fully supported. Michelle has been with TACT for over 12 years’, and has previously worked for other not-for-profit fostering agencies.

We provide our foster parents in Wolverhampton with full training, 24/7 support and a generous fostering allowance:

Wolverhampton Fostering allowance

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

If you join our Wolverhampton Fostering team, you will receive an allowance when young people are placed with you. The actual allowance you will receive will depend on the type of foster care you are providing, the number of children in your care, their age, and any additional needs or complexities of care.

Additionally, you will also receive payments for children’s birthdays, holidays and religious festivals. 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 allowances 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.

All our training is delivered locally to you in and around Wolverhampton, or virtually. The initial course that you will take is called Skills To Foster, and is taken over 3 days within the foster carer assessment period. As will as providing considerable insight, it also gives you the chance to fully evaluate your decision to foster, and whether it is the right choice for your household. If you move on to become an approved foster carer with us, you will then be allocated a full training programme to further your skills.

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, a high level of support is vital. This is why we reinvest surplus income into providing more support for our fostering families. You be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will provide you with most of the help and guidance you need – but we also have a dedicated out-of-hours service and many other resources to ensure that you are fully supported.

This is what we provide:

• Full 24/7 support. Provided by your Supervising Social Worker and our out-of-hours service for total peace of mind.
• Foster carer portal. An online TACT Fostering community 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 service provides advice and support to help ensure that the children in your care receive the best possible educational opportunities.
• 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 Wolverhampton and surrounding areas, providing you with the opportunity to meet other carers in your area.
• Support for young people. Our Children’s Resource Workers provide the children in your care with additional support, activities and events in Wolverhampton.
• 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 a number of reasons why people who are already approved as foster carers look to transfer from their local authority or agency. If you currently foster in Wolverhampton, we can provide a ‘fast track’ application process to ensure that the transfer to us is straightforward and stress-free.

Transferring to us with children already in placement is entirely possible – but we would just need to ensure that stability and consistency of care continues for the child or young person. We would work closely with you and your current fostering provider to ensure that any decisions made are in the best interests of the child(ren).

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