No progress made at 'inadequate' Shropshire foster care agency with 'no motivation to address shortfalls', says report
An 'inadequate' foster care agency has come under renewed criticism after Ofsted inspectors found it had taken "no action" to address serious failings identified nearly a year ago.
Flying Colours Foster Care, located near Whitchurch and operating across Shropshire, was rated 'inadequate' following an inspection by the education watchdog in October 2024, which highlighted "serious and widespread shortfalls".
Despite two subsequent monitoring visits in December and April, aimed at reviewing progress, Ofsted inspectors found no improvements.
In a damning report published on Thursday (September 18), following another visit in July, inspectors stated that the fostering agency had still not met the requirements of key compliance notices.
The agency's manager has come under fire for focusing priorities "on other agency business". Although an action plan was drawn up in response to the inadequate rating, Ofsted has found that it has not been implemented in full, and managers failed to recognise this, stating that they lack both the motivation and skills to implement improvements.
"The purpose of this visit was to review whether sufficient action had been taken to meet the compliance notice re-issued in April 2025," the new report states.
"Inspectors found that no action has been taken to try to meet the compliance notice. The manager has focused his priorities on other agency business and has not addressed any of the shortfalls set out in the compliance notice that has been issued three times.
"The management of the agency remains ineffective. Leaders and managers have not demonstrated that they have the skills or motivation to address the shortfalls raised. Despite developing an action plan to respond to the inadequate judgement, managers have not implemented this in full and fail to recognise that this is the case.
"This lack of understanding means there has been no attempt to implement the actions required to bring about improvement."
