An Independent Fostering Agency with more than 75 years of experience
How You Can Help
- Simply book your next holiday with Charitable Travel and tell us you want to support The Children’s Family Trust. The charity will then benefit from the free donation you can make as part of the booking process. To read more about how this works, head to our ‘About Us‘ page.
- If you want to make a donation to
The Children’s Family Trust and you are not booking a holiday, click here to visit their website. - Visit thecft.org.uk to sign up to newsletters, and follow the
The Children’s Family Trust social media pages, and help spread the word.
How You Can Help
How You Can Help
- Simply book your next holiday with Charitable Travel and tell us you want to support The Children’s Family Trust. The charity will then benefit from the free donation you can make as part of the booking process. To read more about how this works, head to our ‘About Us‘ page.
- If you want to make a donation to
The Children’s Family Trust and you are not booking a holiday, click here to visit their website. - Visit thecft.org.uk to sign up to newsletters, and follow the
The Children’s Family Trust social media pages, and help spread the word.
- Simply book your next holiday with Charitable Travel and tell us you want to support The Children’s Family Trust. The charity will then benefit from the free donation you can make as part of the booking process. To read more about how this works, head to our ‘About Us‘ page.
- If you want to make a donation to
The Children’s Family Trust and you are not booking a holiday, click here to visit their website. - Visit thecft.org.uk to sign up to newsletters, and follow the
The Children’s Family Trust social media pages, and help spread the word.
The Children’s Family Trust are a Registered Charity and not-for-profit fostering agency. We have more than 75 years of experience of caring for children and young people in care, and providing high quality support to foster families. Without our amazing foster families, we would not be able to provide outstanding fostering services to children.
Since we were established in 1945, the organisation has looked after many children and young people from diverse backgrounds with a variety of needs within their dedicated and committed foster families. Many of the children that The CFT care for have not had the best start in life and for one reason or another are unable to live with their birth families. This often means that they have faced great adversity and are in need of a stable and secure home.
Our aim is to provide the highest quality care we possibly can. The organisation now has 4 regional offices across England supported by a central Head Office team. Our offices are based in South Central (Hampshire), West Midlands (Bromsgrove), West Yorkshire (Wakefield), North East (Bishop Auckland) and we are currently expanding their presence in the East Midlands area, hoping to find a more permanent office base in the near future.
The CFT’s ethos is ‘changing futures together’ which demonstrates the commitment we make to any child that has been, is currently or will be in our care. Regardless of the time spent in our care, the door is always open to any child or young person that has been placed with us. Our children can come back and ask us for both financial and emotional support at any point in their lives, even if they have moved into adulthood or on to independence. We have supported some of our young people with deposits for accommodation, provided further educational support, driving lessons and assistance with their own families.
In 2020 we received a number of awards for our services including ‘Most Dedicated Child Care Charity 2020’ and ‘Child Care Charity of the Year’.
In addition to providing support for children, our organisation also recruits, assesses and supports foster carers to look after children and young people in foster care, and we pride ourselves on providing our carers with exceptional support and guidance, extensive training opportunities and a range of other rewards. We accept applicants from all walks of life and backgrounds, and ensure that our information is as accessible and inclusive as possible.
Marina Mulholland, CEO of The CFT, said: “Children continue to come into the care of the local authority every day. We continue to seek high quality foster carers to help us meet the needs of these vulnerable children.”
As a CFT Foster Carer, our carers benefit from:
- Full and ongoing Training
- A highly skilled Supervising Social Worker
- 24/7 support from a qualified social worker
- Regular meetings and social events
- Access to specialist support and services
- High competitive rates of pay and a range of other benefits.
Those applying to foster would need to be over the age of 21 and have a spare bedroom available for fostering. To learn more about becoming a Foster Carer you can call us on 0300 111 1945 or visit the Become a Foster Carer page on our website. Applicants can also text ‘Fostering’ + ‘Your Town’ to 80818.
“Deciding to foster was a big decision but it is most definitely the most rewarding thing I have ever done. If you are thinking about it, go for it”.
Our History
In 1945, our Founder, Paul Field, had a vision. He wanted all children to have the opportunity to have home where they could feel safe, supported and loved. Paul decided to leave his work with the Waifs and Strays Society to found The Children’s Family Trust and to take into his own family the same kinds of children he had looked after previously but now, however, they were to stay within his family for life – on equal terms with his own children.
Despite the struggle to provide for his own extended family, Paul had the desire to see a series of such ‘families’. Once, if barely, established, he set about finding other couples who shared his vision and who were prepared to take up his innovative approach in providing ‘Family for Life’ placements to children. To read more about Paul and his journey click here.
A Family for Life
For many years the ‘ethos’ and ‘strapline’ for The CFT had remained ‘a Family for Life’ representative of the primary placement type offered by the organisation.
Although our strapline has now changed, our ethos has remained very much the same and we regard ‘a family for life’ as representative of the commitment we make to any children that come into our care, regardless of how long they are looked after by us. The CFT strives to support our fostered child or young person throughout their life, often into adulthood.
The CFT Today
Since 1945 The CFT has continued to grow and now operates out of four regional offices across the UK and works with over 100 Local Authorities. Further to this, The CFT is now supporting more Foster Carer’s and children than ever before and offers a wider range of placement types including Short Term, Long Term and Respite. The CFT also supports sibling groups along with Parent and Child placements.
Irrespective of this growth The CFT has remained committed to providing a high-quality service which supports fostering households and puts the children and young people first. As a Trust our aim is to achieve stability and security for our children and young people, helping them to develop their talents and skills, achieve their potential educationally and therefore enabling them to make the most of the opportunities available to them.
Get in touch
The Children’s Family Trust, Hanbury Court, Harris Business Park, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, B60 4DJ
0300 111 1945
[email protected]
Charity no. 208607
by net effect