Fostering in Harrow
There are many children and young people in Harrow who require caring and supportive foster homes. If fostering is something that you have been considering, now would be a great time to apply. You could be making a real difference to children’s lives in your local area.
Your main role as a TACT foster carer would be to provide a safe, stable and nurturing home environment for vulnerable young people. There is lots of flexibility when it comes to choosing the type of fostering you would like to provide. Above all, fostering is rewarding – and many of our foster carers have shared the most amazing stories of how they’ve empowered children in their care to turn their lives around.
TACT are currently recruiting foster carers in Harrow in order to provide nurturing care and guidance for vulnerable young people.
Meet Our Team
We have a great team of staff who provide support to our foster carers in the Borough of Enfield. Priscilla Makambe, our area manager for the area, started working for TACT in 2019. Priscilla previously worked in Local Authority Child Protection and Children with Disabilities Teams before moving into fostering more than 15 years ago.
We cover a wide area in and around the London Borough of Harrow, including Roxeth, Rayners Lane and Stanmore – and many other areas in the borough.
Why Foster in Harrow with TACT?
TACT is the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity. We have been providing nurturing and caring homes for vulnerable young people since 1993.
We work closely with Harrow Council to match and provide fostering homes to young people. Our reinvestment of surplus income into providing more training and support has ensured that our team of carers in Harrow and the surrounding areas are fully supported and have the knowledge they need to make a difference to children’s lives.
We also provide additional support over and above what is required of a fostering charity, such as a dedicated Education Service, Health Service – and an online foster carer portal.
Were 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 into adulthood.
This is why 98% of our carers would recommend us to others thinking of fostering.
Rated As ‘Good’ By Ofsted
Following an inspection in March 2022, Ofsted have announced that TACT London, Essex and Hertfordshire has been rated ‘Good’ for its work with foster carers and looked after children.
“Children thrive and make good progress from their starting points. This is because they share positive and trusting relationships with their foster carers. These positive relationships help children to feel safe and secure.” – Ofsted 2022
24/7 Support
All TACT foster carers are allocated their own Supervising Social Worker who will provide the majority of the support you require on your fostering journey. All our social workers have manageable workloads, allowing them to devote more time to you. Additionally, we provide a dedicated out-of-hours support service for total peace of mind.
Due to our reinvestment of surplus income, we have developed additional support platforms. After all, the better we support you, the better you will be able to provide the care and guidance required to change childrens lives.
This is what we provide:
- Full 24/7 support. Your own Supervising Social Worker, along with our out-of-hours support service.
- Foster carer portal. An online information hub, providing advice and training to help you with your day-to-day life as a foster carer.
- Education service. Ensuring that the young people in your care receive the educational opportunities they are entitled to.
- 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 Harrow and North West London, and provide you with a local outlet to meet other carers in your area, share experiences and knowledge, and even make new friends!
- Support for young people. Our Children’s Resource Workers provide the children in your care with additional support, activities and events.
- 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. In some circumstances, 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.
Fostering Allowance Harrow
Foster carers are highly skilled people, and our Harrow fostering fees and allowances reflect this.
There are two elements to the allowance that you will receive:
- A foster carer fee: this is, in effect, your fee for caring for young people in your home.
- An allowance for each child in your care: this will cover various expenses that you may incur such as food and clothing.
The actual allowance that you will receive will depend on the type of foster care you are providing, the number of children in your care, their age, the complexity of their needs and any other factors specific to that young person.
You will also receive additional payments for childrens 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).
Below are some examples of the weekly Harrow fostering allowances you could expect to receive when you have a young person placed with you:
Hear From Our Foster Carers in Harrow
“There should be enough love to go around”
Fostering can be challenging, but seeing the difference you can make to a young person’s life is so rewarding. My home is a happy one, and my sons have been able to adapt well to fostering situations.
“As a foster carer I try to support every child’s needs.”
Mohammed is a single male carer who started fostering after his own experiences growing up.
“Fostering has bought so much happiness and laughter to our home”
It is a difficult balancing act – being a father to her but not making her feel like I am trying to replace that special relationship that she has with her birth father. We always say that she has not lost anyone, but instead she now has two families who love her.