Ofsted warns Bright Horizons over safeguarding failings across England

A safeguarding notice against Bright Horizons has exposed how problems at a national nursery chain can move far beyond one site and into the way the whole group is run. Ofsted said the provider, which operates 247 settings across England, had not shown it could keep safeguarding consistently effective across its nursery network.

The regulator served Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited with a Welfare Requirements Notice on 22 June 2026 after concerns that began in September 2025 following a serious safeguarding incident. Between October 2025 and June 2026, Ofsted carried out 172 inspections, site visits and direct engagements across the chain and found breaches in 75 settings. The majority of nurseries still meet requirements, Ofsted said, but the notice points to significant weaknesses in organisational safeguarding leadership, governance, oversight and practice.

Bright Horizons must comply with the required actions by 1 August 2026. Those steps include making sure senior leaders are fully familiar with safeguarding policies, that safeguarding is applied consistently across all settings, and that senior leaders, including the Nominated Individual, keep accurate and timely oversight of concerns and risks. Ofsted also wants the company to show that concerns are identified, recorded, escalated and answered properly, including when patterns and cumulative risk emerge.

The warning lands under wider scrutiny of the chain after former employee Vincent Chan pleaded guilty in December 2025 to 26 charges linked to the sexual assault of multiple children and the making and taking of indecent images at a Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, West Hampstead, London. A colleague first raised concerns with Camden council in May 2024, and the Metropolitan Police later described the case as one of its most harrowing and complex child sexual abuse investigations. Bright Horizons said in December 2025 that it had commissioned an expert to conduct a full review of its safeguarding practices after the abuse admission.

Ofsted’s concerns were echoed in a separate inspection at Bright Horizons St John’s Wood Day Nursery and Preschool on 29 April 2026, where safeguarding standards were not met. Inspectors said leaders had not ensured an open and positive culture around safeguarding, and that not all staff had a robust knowledge of procedures, including timely referrals to the local authority designated officer and to Ofsted.

Sir Martyn Oliver said the outcome summary sets out clearly what the group must do and by when, and told parents to read their own nursery’s latest inspection report or update. Ofsted also said it can refuse, cancel or impose conditions on nursery registrations if Bright Horizons does not comply. On the same day, the regulator said it would carry out an extra 3,000 unannounced nursery inspections a year in England from September 2026.