This is (not-for-profit) fostering
It’s Foster Care Fortnight from 11th-24th May – the UK’s largest campaign aimed at raising awareness about fostering, and the celebration and appreciation of foster carers who put their hearts into the everyday care, support and advocacy for children.
The Fostering Network’s theme for 2026 is This Is Fostering, and is focused on the everyday experiences of a role that makes so much difference in the lives of young people. The theme also highlights challenges in today’s fostering climate, such as low fostering allowances and sporadic support. Finally, it highlights the coming together as a wider fostering community to potentially lobby the government for positive change.
Here at TACT Fostering, we’ve chosen to put a spin on this year’s theme by delving further beneath the surface of foster care, to look at the many ways people make a difference under the umbrella term of fostering. Using the headline prompt of ‘This Is Not Just Fostering…’, the charity is encouraging their foster carers and staff to complete the sentence in a meaningful way personal to their fostering journey. We wanted to highlight and amplify the compelling, diverse and truly inspiring stories that can sometimes get lost under the general term of fostering.
Despite an enhancement of the campaign theme, it’s still important to address some of the threads raised in the official campaign. A good place to start is by stating that the role of a fostering agency or local authority should be to provide foster carers with a 360-degree tool kit and support environment to enable them to bring their skill, dedication and compassion to fostering. A fostering organisation should not have internal focuses on areas such as corporate profit margins, that can sideline the equipping of foster carers with the means, support, finances and wellbeing resources to care for vulnerable children. Even more than that, it should go above and beyond.
TACT is a member of The Fairer Fostering Partnership, a group of charitable and not-for-profit fostering organisations that reinvest surplus income directly back into providing additional care, training and wellbeing initiatives to nurture an amazing team of dedicated foster carers.
This is not-for-profit fostering.
“This Foster Care Fortnight, we’re spotlighting that fostering with TACT means something different. Our campaign focuses on what makes us unique and what fostering means to the people at the heart of it: our foster carers, young people and colleagues.
This is not just fostering…it’s being the change you want to see.”
Andy Elvin, TACT CEO
How TACT Enhances the Fostering Offer
Some of the key issues for foster carers on a national level are finances and quality of support. It’s no surprise that these areas are a point of focus for The Fostering Network’s Foster Care Fortnight campaign.
Financial Wellbeing For Foster Carers
In our current climate with living costs skyrocketing, it’s understandable that finances would sit at the forefront. Here at TACT, we uplifted the fee we pay to our carers in April 2026 by 4%, following on from an uplift in 2024 by 4.5%.
We also established our Council Tax Contribution Scheme, centred around TACT making contributions to foster carer’s council tax bill – with the amount contributed increasing according to a carer’s length of service (including their fostering experience outside of TACT).
We call this financial wellbeing. Our objective is to remove finances as a point of concern, to enable our foster carers to fully invest their skill and passion into the day-to-day care of children, without financial distraction. Read more about TACT’s fostering pay and allowances.
Robust Fostering Support
Adequate support is another key priority for TACT. Dissatisfaction with support has been highlighted as the main reason why foster carers transfer to an alternative agency. 24/7 support should be a standard expectation of a fostering agency. It is of course vital when it’s needed, but it also provides peace of mind – that there is always someone to talk to.
But support for foster carers should cover multiple touchpoints, and be provided in lots of different ways.
TACT provide robust support for foster carers, the young people they provide care for – and any of the carer’s own ‘birth children’. This additional support includes access to wellbeing-themed apps, Breathways sessions for stress and anxiety, and regular wellbeing days out.
TACT also provides specific targeted support for young people, via specialist teams of Children’s Resource Workers and Engagement & Activity Practitioners. Our teams offer 1-1 sessions with young people, right through to days out filled with activities that enhance wellbeing and a sense of belonging.
One of TACT’s most recent key successes is our Pass the Praise scheme, providing staff with the opportunity to nominate another staff member or a foster carer for outstanding work. This is why TACT is often cited as having a family or community feel. We pride ourselves on our support and wellbeing offer, that extends from our staff, to our foster carers – all the way through to each child in every household. Read more about TACT’s fostering support.
“I chose TACT because it’s a charity and knew that any income it generates is going back into supporting the children. The support from TACT is great. And they even provided additional financial help to carers to help us through the cost-of-living crisis.”
Damian, TACT Foster Carer Since 2022
TACT’s Innovative Support Services
Being a charitable fostering agency is not just about ticking the boxes, it’s about creating more boxes to tick.
With our focus on outstanding outcomes for children and 360-degree support for our foster carers, TACT have established additional services to further enhance the care that we provide:
- Education Service: a full service overseen by a dedicated Head of Education, and consisting of a team of Advisory Teachers, Post-16 Advisors and Education Support Administrators covering England, Scotland and Wales. From advocating for young people to providing targeted support, advice and training, the team ensures that TACT young people are able to access their entitlement of a full time and appropriate education based on their age, ability and needs. Read more about TACT’s Education Service.
- Health Service: overseen by our in-house Health Commissioning, our Health Service ensures timely access to mental health services for our young people, potentially sidestepping traditionally long NHS waiting lists. Being able to deliver professional therapeutic and mental health support at the point when it is needed is vital to enable early strategies and interventions to be put in place. Read more about TACT’s Health Service.
- Connect: a community specifically aimed at TACT’s post-15 care-experienced young people, providing support and guidance, events and a number of perks and benefits. TACT wanted to create a space for young people to use into adulthood and beyond. Many Connect staff are care-experienced themselves. Read more about Connect.
Having these specialist services in-house has provided some distinct advantages, such as better through-line communication and more timely support. They also reinforce our approach of creating a ‘community feel’; the bringing together of foster carers and TACT staff in order to help achieve great outcomes for children and young people.
When we can see these remarkable outcomes that have been achieved because we have established far-reaching services, it truly validates their existence.
One of our most recent success stories was supporting a young person to appeal a decision made by a local authority about whether they had Special Educational Needs (SEN) and required an Individual Development Plan moving forward. TACT’s Education Service advocated for a young person and the case was taken to a tribunal, where it was proved that our young person required this support.
TACT’s new Making Spaces Scheme aims to reunite siblings placed in different foster homes by providing house renovation grants to their already approved foster carers. These grants help generate additional bedrooms to potentially bring siblings back together, where there had previously not been a home large enough to provide care for all.
“They have all evolved so much when it comes to their views, ambitions, self-care skills, social skills and achievements in education. The oldest one just passed his GCSEs and came out with As, Bs one C. He has done so well, especially considering the fact that he didn’t really go to school until he was nine years old! After college he plans to go to university to study creative media.”
Amanda & Bill, TACT Foster Carers Since 2006
TACT and Lobbying for Change
As the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity, lobbying for change in the fostering sector has been in our DNA for many years.
Andy Elvin, TACT CEO and Chair of The Fairer Fostering Partnership, is an active voice within the sector – and a go-to participant for media outlets such as the BBC, Sky News, The Times and The Guardian.
Andy has actively been involved in discussions around the need for more foster carers on a national level, along with more specific topics such as the need for more action around homelessness for the care-experienced.
Andy has produced manifestos ahead of general elections, calling on the government to act in key areas such as producing a national foster carer recruitment plan, for ‘care experience’ to become a protected characteristic and a focus on building lifelong links with birth families.
Highlighting the removal of profit from foster care has also been a focus for Andy, and TACT have already supported a partnership with Foster Care Values in Wales – in support of the Welsh government’s initiative to remove profit-making from foster care.
When fostering agencies remove profit from the equation and truly reinvest in their services, remarkable outcomes can be achieved for children and young people. At TACT we see daily validation of our commitment to going above and beyond. By ensuring that our amazing team of foster carers receive training and support that exceeds expectations, we enable them to use their skill and dedication to empower young people to regain control of their lives.
This is not-for-profit fostering.
