A SALISBURY couple have achieved something many thought impossible – bringing three siblings back under one roof after they had been split between foster homes.

Sarah and Pete Banks, foster carers with TACT Fostering, were already caring for two brothers when their sister was placed elsewhere due to a lack of space in their home.

Fostering rules require each child to have their own bedroom, leaving the family separated despite the couple’s determination to keep them together.

That changed thanks to a new initiative launched earlier this year by the charity.

TACT’s Making Spaces scheme offers grants to help foster carers adapt their homes, often with the aim of reuniting brothers and sisters.

Sarah applied as soon as she heard about it.

“I asked TACT if it was something they could help with, as I did not want their sibling going anywhere else,” she said.

The grant funded renovations to create an additional bedroom – and within weeks, everything changed.

“Two weeks later, I was able to tell the boys their sister was coming to live with them. They cheered and jumped up and down and it was a very emotional time.

“Their relationships with each other have grown stronger every day. Just watching them together drawing or building forts and using their imaginations is heart-warming and without a doubt it was the right thing to do.

“They are typical siblings who laugh together and argue – but who clearly love each other and will be there for each other.”

TACT’s chief executive Andy Elvin said the scheme reflects the charity’s wider mission.

“As a not-for-profit fostering charity, we reinvest any surplus we make back into supporting our carers and the young people we care for.

“Through the ‘Making Spaces’ scheme, we have used that surplus to provide grants that help carers adapt their homes and keep siblings together in a family environment.”

For one Salisbury family, that vision has already become a reality – turning a house into a home for three children who can now grow up side by side.