Our South West Fostering Team arranged for our young people to attend school over the Easter Holidays – but this wasn’t their regular school!

During the Easter Holidays, our Bristol Forest School event was attended by a small group of our young people. Throughout the day, both the young people and their carers took part in a variety of engaging activities. They learned about leaf printing, and created moulded clay medals and necklaces – as well as flags using leaf prints. They also enjoyed toasting marshmallows and eating wood-fired pizzas.

The group also took part in a treasure hunt, searching for items such as pinecones and stick-made arrows, and finished the day by participating in a range of different games. Some of the young people who attended had never met before, but left having made new friends. It was a great opportunity for both foster carers and young people to connect, socialise, and build new relationships.

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On Wednesday 29 April, we brought together over 70 business representatives for an evening of networking and inspiring talks to launch our new partnerships programme.

The event, 'Partnering with Purpose’, was held at The Yard Coffee at Pivotal House, where we welcomed a mix of existing supporters and new business connections from across the region. It marked the introduction of our refreshed partnerships offer, including our Supporter Network, aimed at helping organisations combine meaningful social impact with their CSR and ESG ambitions.

Broadcaster Jake Humphrey, best known for his work across Premier League football, Formula One and The High Performance Podcast, delivered a talk on why social value is business critical, drawing on his experience to explore the role businesses can play in creating positive change.

Jake said: "I’m a firm believer in the power of charity, and I’ve seen first‑hand how ambitious Break is for the young people it supports. They're brilliant at tailoring partnerships with businesses like yours in line with what you can offer and want to achieve, resulting in real, meaningful impact. You really can help change lives.”

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Children of foster carers deserve to be celebrated. Not only do they share their homes, but they also share the love and attention of their caregiver when their family welcomes a young person into their lives.

To find out more about the role of children of foster carers, we spoke to three of our foster families. Meet Ruth, who fosters with her husband Derek, and their children Kirsti, Aimee and Jamie; Karen and Mike, who foster alongside their daughter Abi; and Lydia, who grew up in a fostering family and is now starting the process to become a foster carer herself.

The first conversation
Fostering can impact every family member. It's important to make any children in the home feel part of the decision. Ruth fosters with her husband Derek, and their children Kirsti, Aimee and Jamie. She said: “When Derek and I knew we wanted to foster, we immediately spoke to Aimee, Kirsti and Jamie. We’d made it clear from the start that if they had any issues or reasons why they wouldn’t want us to foster, then we wouldn’t. It had to be us agreeing to this journey as a family.”

Likewise, for Karen and Mike, their teenage daughter, Abi, was instrumental in them exploring fostering. Abi said: “I remember mum reading out an article about a child who needed a home to live in. I was intrigued because I couldn’t imagine what that would be like and I thought we might be able to help.”

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TACT are proud to be a part of the National Year of Reading 2026, which aims to make lasting change to the reading habits of the nation and promote a love of reading in children and young people. Over the past three months, TACT’s dedicated Education Service have worked extremely hard to make this campaign engaging and exciting. This is the story so far…

To connect our fostering households to the campaign, we chose to send monthly internal newsletters called ‘Bookworm Bulletins’. These were key to informing our fostering families about upcoming activities, along with providing resources and recommendations.

Meet the author events
One of the highlights of the first three months of the campaign was the Meet the Author event with Nick Sharratt, illustrator of the famous Story of Tracy Beaker books. This was attended by 12 children and young people as well as their carers and some TACT staff members. The session was lively, engaging, and brought a great deal of joy to the children – who also had very thoughtful and enthusiastic questions which contributed to a fantastic atmosphere.

A foster carer who joined the session with a young person in their care immediately noticed a positive change: “He has loved learning to draw  and sessions like this have been incredible for his development and his confidence. He now loves drawing and is now proud of all his work”.  A particular highlight involved a young person who joined the event remotely from his hospital bed – and enjoyed it so much that their carer’s Supervising Social Worker has arranged online drawing classes for him while he remains in hospital.

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​People = Community
We at Community Foster Care are dedicated to building and evolving an organisation that behaves with cultural humility. As with any community, it is the people who make it, so we believe it is really important to bring people on board who are aligned with our values and beliefs. This could be our staff members, trustees, foster carers or extended community.

We want a community that is diverse, that believes in making society a more accepting, tolerant and integrated place. We believe a key part of this is being trauma informed, having an understanding of why people act and think in the ways they do and how this can impact their experience of the world.

It matters because the children and young people with which we work experience discrimination and are disadvantaged by our society. They frequently experience social injustice. These children also represent diversity in all its forms, so we want our community to reflect this back to them, not only because representation is so important but because we recognise the value of diverse thought and experience for raising children and young people. As an example, children of colour are disproportionately represented in the care system, yet foster carers of colour are under represented and it is important that this changes.

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An Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) is designed for children and young people who have special educational needs that cannot be met through standard educational support. In February 2026, the government announced reforms to EHCPs, ending a ‘one size fits all’ approach, and providing a wider legal entitlement to more intensive or complex support. TACT foster carer, Chris, has shared his perspective on the EHCP Reforms.

For many of us as foster carers, an EHCP has never been just paperwork. It represents security, recognition, and the first time a child potentially hears: “Your needs matter, and we will make sure you are supported.”

Because of that, the idea of moving away from EHCPs as the main gateway to support is significant. While the government’s ambition to provide earlier, more consistent help in mainstream schools is positive, particularly for children who should not have to ‘fail first’ before receiving support, the emotional and practical value of an EHCP must not be underestimated.

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A couple of our families recently enjoyed a fantastic day out at Tannadice Park, thanks to Dundee United who kindly provided complimentary tickets for their match against Celtic.

The tickets were offered as part of our partnership this season, with TACT proudly displaying an advertising board at the stadium. The opportunity gave families a chance to experience the excitement of live football together.

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For Joanne and McPhil from Northern Ireland, fostering with Barnardo’s has turned their lives upside down in the best possible way, bringing joy, challenges and blessings, not just for them, but for their four birth children too.

Two years into their fostering journey with us, the family has already made a lasting difference to the children they’ve cared for. They’re sharing their story in the hope it encourages you to consider opening your home to children who need care.

How their fostering journey started
For Joanne and McPhil, fostering wasn’t a quick or impulsive decision. It was something they thought about for years, waiting until the timing felt right for their family.

“We considered fostering when our children were younger, but it just wasn’t the right moment,” Joanne says. “Now that they’re older, we have the space and love to offer a young person.”

McPhil says their motivation was simple. “We just wanted to meet a child’s needs,” he says. “There’s a real shortage of foster carers, and we felt we could help.”

With four older birth children, fostering quickly became a whole-family conversation. “We talked it through together,” Joanne explains. “One of our daughters said she’d heard about a family of four going into care and told me, ‘Mum, imagine if that was us. I just couldn’t imagine it.’”

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Jan has been a TACT Supervising Social Worker since 2005. She talks about some of her proudest moments as a Social Worker.

I began my social care career working in a residential unit for adults with cerebral palsy. I did this for 14 years and then did my social work training. After I qualified, I worked in a childcare team for 5 years, then 5 years in a local authority fostering team. I then joined TACT in 2005. My favourite thing about TACT is the longevity of the foster placements that we have, and being able to provide forever families for young people.

I love it when children and young people progress, when they achieve things – be it academically or in a sport they never thought they could do. Sometimes it’s what can be overlooked which brings job satisfaction, a young child’s delight when maybe for the first time they go to school in a nice clean uniform and their hair is washed and tidy. Or a child’s excitement because in a school concert or on sports day there is a grown up in the audience or in the crowd cheering them on. 

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Fair Ways Bake Off 2026 brought together young people from across our services to showcase their creativity, confidence and baking skills. With 13 fantastic entries and support from community partners, this year’s event was a true celebration of achievement and teamwork. 

This year’s Fair Ways Bake Off was another fantastic celebration of creativity, effort and achievement, bringing together young people from across our services for a truly special event. 

From delicious cheesecakes to beautifully decorated sponge cakes, each bake reflected the time, care and creativity that had gone into it, making it a real challenge for our judges to choose the winners. 

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