Since September last year, Ofsted has been carrying out an
extensive programme of regulatory activity across nurseries in
the Bright Horizons group.
On 22 June, a Welfare
Requirements Notice (WRN) was served, requiring
the leadership of Bright Horizons to address all identified
safeguarding and welfare failures by 1 August 2026.
Since then, Ofsted has carried out further regulatory activity
and monitoring inspections at 68 Bright Horizons nurseries, which
were selected through risk-based analysis.
Overall, inspectors found that measurable progress has been made
across the organisation, with significant resources invested in
strengthening safeguarding arrangements, governance, oversight,
training, and quality assurance arrangements.
However, while just under half of the nurseries monitored were
found to now be meeting requirements, inspectors identified
breaches of requirements at 39 settings, including significant
weaknesses in safeguarding, leadership and governance. These
findings will be published in the inspection reports or outcome
summaries on each individual nursery's Ofsted webpage, as usual.
Today, Ofsted has issued a further WRN to Bright Horizons
setting out actions that must be taken to ensure effective and
consistent oversight of safeguarding concerns and risks across
all its provision. The actions relate to:
- concerns about children's safety and welfare
- safeguarding policies and procedures
- staff supervision
An updated outcome summary has been published on Ofsted's reports pagefor
each Bright Horizons setting. The outcome summary is clear that
these actions relate to organisational arrangements and do not
reflect concerns identified at each individual setting.
Ofsted will continue monitoring Bright Horizons provision to
ensure that all actions are successfully completed.
His Majesty's Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said:
While I'm pleased to see evidence of improvement across the
Bright Horizons group, work is still needed to ensure that
requirements are met consistently. The majority of Bright
Horizons nurseries are doing well, but we have set clear
expectations about what needs to improve.
We will always take any necessary action to keep children safe,
because every single child deserves the same level of care and
protection.
Notes to editors
- Where concerns have been identified at an individual Bright
Horizons nursery, these will be set out in its most recently
published inspection report or outcome summary. These are
published on our inspection
reports website.
- A WRN is
issued under Regulation 10 of The Early Years Foundation Stage
(Welfare Requirements) Regulations 2012 when Ofsted considers
that a provider is failing, or has failed, to meet one or more of
the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years
Foundation Stage (EYFS).
- A WRN sets
out actions that a provider must complete within a specified
timeframe.
