Update on Bright Horizons regulatory action
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 page for 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.
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