This Is Not Just Fostering…it’s being the change you want to see
Andy Elvin, TACT CEO
On why fostering with TACT means something different.
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.
We’re a charity, we’re not-for-profit and, for over 30 years, we’ve been driven by our purpose: to create better lives for children and young people.
Driving meaningful change
Part of being TACT is being willing to speak up and get involved to drive meaningful change. We know that the fostering sector faces real challenges, from funding pressures to foster carer recruitment and the continued presence of profit-making in children’s social care. We have a responsibility not just to operate ethically, but to advocate for a system that puts children first.
We’re members of the Fairer Fostering Partnership, which is a group of charitable and not-for-profit fostering agencies whose members look after over 2,000 children in care. Together we believe that where a surplus is made, it should be re-invested into children’s services; and that excessive profit has no place in the care of vulnerable children.
Making a difference in the sector
We actively engage in campaigning and influencing, whether it’s working with partners in the sector, responding to consultations, contributing to policy discussions or amplifying the voices of carers and care-experienced young people.
Recently we shared our response to the Department for Education’s consultation on the fostering reforms in England. We heard from our foster carers and colleagues and gathered their views, which helped to shape our response. We look forward to seeing real change in action for the benefit of children, young people and foster carers.
This week I have the privilege of attending a parliamentary reception in the House of Lords with Christina (TACT’s Strategic Director of Children’s Services) and Kayleigh (TACT’s Innovation & Continuous Improvement Manager) to mark Foster Care Fortnight and celebrate the launch of a new Practice Guide on support for foster carers, which TACT has contributed to.
During the next fortnight I’ll also be attending a North West local authority’s fostering managers meeting as part of the development of a Regional Care Co-op (RCC), giving evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group for care-experienced people, visiting our excellent South West team, meeting the Greater Manchester RCC team about a number of projects and liaising with the Department for Education (DfE) on many issues relating to fostering.
For TACT, what we do is not just fostering. It is using our experience and knowledge and the evidence we get from our carers, young people and the care-experienced community to make a positive difference for all children and young people in care. We passionately believe the care system can, and should, be better. Just as our foster carers always go the extra mile to support our children, we are always looking for ways to make the system better for children and foster families.
The opportunities ahead
These are exciting times for fostering. In Wales the government are seeking to eliminate profit from providing foster care, in Scotland they have gone a step further and have legislated that all independent fostering agencies must be charities.
In England the DfE are creating RCC’s whereby local authorities will no longer directly run the care system. Instead RCC’s made up of circa 10-15 local authorities will take on the provision of fostering and other forms of care alongside their independent fostering agency partners. This is an exciting opportunity to create a more child centred, agile, responsive, empathic and trauma-informed system that puts children before profit and organisational convenience.
Everyone in the sector should embrace this generational opportunity – and for anyone out there who is looking for how to make a positive difference in troubled times, then choose helping, choose putting others before yourself and choose fostering.
This is not just fostering, it’s being the change you want to see.
