TACT as a Charity

As a charitable organisation, we are 100% not-for-profit. Every penny of our surplus income is reinvested into supporting our foster families and young people, and has done so for over 25 years.

Governance

Unlike many independent fostering agencies, we have no owners and have no requirement to pay out dividends or bonuses. We are governed by our board of trustees, an unpaid group of volunteers who oversee our systems of financial control, promote high ethical standards and monitor regulatory compliance. We cannot ‘sell’ our foster carers as commercial IFA’s regularly do and we never offer bribes to foster carers to switch to us. Find out more about our trustees here.

Work in Partnership with Local Authorities

Because we are under no obligation to make a profit, we are able to charge extremely fair fees to local authorities during the matching process between children and foster carers. It was noted in the 2018 Fostering Stocktake that we consistently charge the lowest fees to local authorities. This is particularly important at a time where local authorities are already under strain and feeling the effects of austerity.

Salaries

Our social workers across the country are paid in line as those who work for local authorities, while for senior managers this rate is typically lower. This means that more money can be invested into our foster families and young people.

Policy & Campaigning

As a charity, we also provide a voice for children in care and campaign for issues that matter to children and young people in care and on the fringes of care. Find out more about our policy & campaigning work here.

Profit-Making in Fostering

We believe that the care of vulnerable children and young people should not be a way in which investors can profit. Commercial fostering agencies make millions of pounds profit from fostering, all of which could be reinvested into making a huge difference to the young people they care for. Our CEO Andy Elvin has written many articles on this topic – read his 2015 Guardian article here.