What Is Fostering?
What Is Fostering?
What is fostering? Fostering involves providing care for babies, children, or young people who require a safe, stable, and loving family environment. Foster carers are supported with a generous allowance, professional training, and outstanding support from their local TACT team to ensure the best opportunities for the children in their care.
Foster with a Charity
Choosing to foster with a charity like TACT means supporting a non-profit organisation where all surplus income is reinvested into directly benefiting the children in care and their foster families. This approach prioritises the well-being of the child over profit, offering additional advantages such as comprehensive training, 24/7 support, and access to a strong, dedicated community of foster families committed to making a positive impact on vulnerable young people’s lives.
Pay and Allowance
As soon as you’re approved as a foster carer and begin caring for a young person, you will immediately receive a fostering allowance. The total fostering allowance that you receive will vary based on a number of factors, including the type of foster care you are providing, the number or children that you care for and their age, as well as the complexity of their needs.
Help Change a Child’s Life
Sadly, over 60,000 children in the UK are currently in foster care or need fostering. Choosing to become a foster carer can have a life-changing impact on a child’s future. If you have a spare bedroom and the time to commit to fostering, you could make a meaningful difference and help transform a child’s life.
We’re committed to supporting you, no matter the time. We understand that life doesn’t follow a 9-to-5 schedule, so whether you need advice, someone to listen, or practical help, we’re always available when you need us.
Your wellbeing is our priority, and we believe it’s about more than just immediate assistance. That’s why we offer a wide range of support, including mental health resources, stress management, physical health guidance, and opportunities for personal growth. We’re dedicated to helping you in every aspect of your wellbeing.
Our goal is to ensure you never feel alone, whether you’re facing challenges or celebrating achievements. We’re here to create a supportive environment that keeps you balanced and empowered every step of the way.
“Fostering really brings you the highest of highs”
“Witnessing the change in the children, seeing their personalities develop and their confidence and trust in adults grow, is what I enjoy most about fostering. We have a good routine, which the children have responded well to. After bath is story and bed. Seeing their smiling faces as we share good nights is so rewarding. Fostering really brings you the highest of highs.
I have been so impressed with the support we have received from TACT. We have been given so much material in the form of therapeutic parenting and children’s books. TACT supported us with purchasing some items we needed to care for the younger child. We are grateful for receiving financial support to aid with the school commute. The training offered is easy to access and of a high standard ensuring that, as a foster carer, I remain up to date and professional. I feel that TACT is very child focused but also supports foster carers. The events we attended have also been excellent and we feel all our efforts are appreciated.”
Why do children need fostering?
Children require fostering for many different reasons. It could be due to an illness in the family, leaving the family home without an appropriate parent or guardian. Many of these cases require short-term fostering. Unfortunately, the majority of children need to stay longer in the care system due to concerns of neglect or abuse. In such cases, long-term fostering may be necessary.
While it can be stressful for children to leave their family home, fostering is sometimes necessary to minimise trauma that could impact a child’s behaviour, learning, mental health, well-being, and their ability to form relationships with others.
The specific reasons why children enter the care system depend on their individual circumstances.
Could you foster?
Our foster carers come from a wide range of backgrounds, cultures and ethnic groups. We believe the most important criteria for becoming a foster carer is your ability to listen and empathise, to provide a stable and loving home and to speak up for the children you care for. Your sexuality, marital status, age and whether you own a home do not determine your suitability as a foster carer, therefore will not impact your fostering application.
✔ You must be over 21 years old (there is no upper age limit)
Being aged 21 or over will ensure that you have the emotional capabilities and life experience to fully care for a child or young person. Additionally, it helps to ensure that there is a sufficient age gap between older children and yourself.
However, there is no upper age limit! As long as you have the energy and capacity to make a difference to young people’s lives, it is never too late to start your fostering journey.
✔ You must have at least one spare bedroom
Fostering standards state that all young people in foster care should have their own bedroom.
This is to provide children with a space that they can call their own. A place of calmness and privacy to help them recover from any past trauma they may have experienced.
There are a few exceptions around sharing a bedroom, but only for same-sex siblings. This would be agreed on a case-by-case basis. If you have your own children, they would not be able to share a bedroom with any young person in your care.
You would need at least one spare bedroom in your home before you could apply to be a foster carer.
✔ You must be a full-time resident in the UK or have indefinite leave to remain
Being a full-time resident in the UK, or having indefinite leave to remain ensures that there is a commitment from you to provide continuity of care.
At TACT, the best interests of children come first. It would be disruptive for young people if their foster carer was required to return to another country. This would require them to move to a new foster home that may not be as beneficial to them as the care that you were providing.
✔ You must have good spoken and written English
When you become a foster carer, you join a team of support around a child.
That team will include social workers, engagement and activity practitioners, teachers and medical practitioners. Being able to communicate verbally with a variety of professionals is essential.
You would also be required to keep records detailing the progress of any young people in your care, so good written English is vital.
✔ You must have the time and availability to dedicate yourself to fostering
Fostering is very rewarding, but it also requires time, commitment, empathy, patience and skill.
Aside from personal qualities, there are also practical aspects – such as school drop-offs, training, meetings and medical appointments. Having the time and availability to dedicate yourself to fostering is essential.
Start Your Fostering Journey
