As the largest dedicated fostering charity in the UK, we believe that brilliant foster carers come from all walks of life. We welcome foster carers from the LGBTQIA+ community and we believe that your personal qualities, not sexual orientation or gender, are what makes you an amazing foster carer.
Making sure that our amazing team of LGBTQIA+ foster carers are fully supported has been a top priority for TACT. This is why we set up a dedicated support group for our LGBTQIA+ foster carers, and also for any fostering households who are providing care to young people who identify as LGBTQIA+.
The support group is also keen to demonstrate positive visibility within communities across the UK – for example, attendance at LGBTQ+ themed events such as Pride festivals.
Natalie, the group’s Chair and TACT foster carer herself, had this to say about the support group:
“You are welcome to be yourself and can be assured that you will be treated with dignity and acceptance from the start of your journey. Children are at the heart of what TACT does and this starts with giving all foster carers the foundations they need to build upon – and continues throughout. TACT has recently supported the introduction of the PRIDE Network which is open to all and run by openly out carers and members of staff and their allies.”
“James and I did have some anxieties over whether being an LGBTQ+ couple would be a barrier to us fostering. However, our fears were soon allayed by speaking to TACT. They assured us that being LGBTQ+ would never be a barrier or affect our ability to foster – as long as we could offer the necessary love and support to a child TACT were happy for us to go ahead.”
TACT Fostering will be present at these Pride 2024 events. Come and say hello, and talk to us about fostering.
To begin your fostering journey, no previous training is required as we provide all our foster carers with full and ongoing training. However, some childcare experience is preferred.
The first course you will take is called Skills To Foster. It is delivered fully remotely by one of any trainers and is designed to provide an early insight into what being a foster carer is like. You will get to meet some of our existing foster carers, and there will be other fostering applicants in the training sessions – enabling you to share thoughts and ideas.
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.
When you become a foster carer with TACT, you will be allocated your own Supervising Social Worker who will support you on your fostering journey, and provide any help you need. 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.
We reinvest 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:
Foster carers are highly skilled people, and our fostering allowances reflect this.
The fostering allowance is made up of two elements: a foster carer fee that is, in effect, your fee for caring for young people. The second element is an ‘allowance’ for each child you provide care for – to cover various expenses that you may incur such as food or clothing. The actual allowance that you will receive will be fully dependent on the type of foster care you are providing, the number of children that you care for, their age, the complexity of their needs and any other factors specific to that young person.
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 allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:
There are a number of myths that, to this day, prevent some LGBTQIA+ people from applying to be foster carers. Let’s look at some of the more popular myths, and break them down!
Your sexual and/or gender identity has absolutely nothing to do with your suitability to foster. Whether or not you can foster depends only on your ability to provide a stable and loving home for a child or young person.
This is absolutely false. In a lot of cases… it’s actually the opposite! LGBTQIA+ carers are encouraged to apply due to their unique perspectives and personal understanding of facing adversity and navigating feelings of potentially being marginalised. Three-quarters of social workers thought this open-mindedness to difference and ability to empathise with fostered children was a significant strength (New Family Social Survey 2011).
There is absolutely no evidence that gendered parenting benefits children whatsoever. What children need is a safe, stable and nurturing household where they are receiving love and support. In fact, there are a range of studies exploring how the lack of gender expectations and stereotyping present in LGBTQIA+ households specifically can be beneficial for a child. It is thought to be advantageous to witness an equal relationship where individual responsibilities aren’t determined by gender but instead rely on personal skills and interests.
Children may look up to their parents, but sexual and/or gender identity cannot truly be steered one way or the other, nor should it be. LGBTQIA+ parents & foster carers are only more likely to teach their children to be open-minded and tolerant of diversity in general, as well as give them more confidence to be able to navigate their feelings and be themselves.
There is no one type of ‘ideal’ foster carer. Single LGBTQIA+ people sometimes feel they will be judged for wanting to foster alone because it is an ‘unconventional’ family format, but the truth is that anyone can foster as a single carer, no matter their identity. Additionally, single men sometimes feel they aren’t sought after to be foster carers because it’s a ‘maternal’ role that needs a woman’s involvement. However, some looked after children hugely benefit from having a healthy male role model. The matching process ensures children and young people are placed with carers who can offer the most suitable family environment for them to thrive in.
Due to changing attitudes and a focus on diversity, wellbeing and acceptance in schools, this is an outdated perspective. Unfortunately, bullying does happen for a multitude of different reasons – what’s important is your ability to help your child if they tell you that they are being bullied. All schools should have an anti-bullying policy in place, so it would be your job to report it quickly to enable any bullying or victimisation to be dealt with by the school.
Foster carers change children’s lives every day. If you think you have what it takes to make a difference, why not make a no-obligation enquiry using the form on this page – or call us now on 0330 123 2250. Our friendly team of enquiry officers will be able to advise you about the different types of fostering you can undertake, and will be able to answer any questions you may have.
