STORY
Ofsted has served a Welfare Requirements Notice on Bright Horizons after identifying safeguarding and welfare failures across parts of the nursery group. The regulator took action after serious safeguarding concerns at one Bright Horizons nursery came to light in September 2025, prompting a wider programme of regulatory activity across the company’s 247 nurseries.
The watchdog said it carried out inspections, site visits and direct engagement with senior leaders at 172 Bright Horizons nurseries. Breaches of requirements were identified in 69 of those settings, with the findings published in individual nursery reports.
Ofsted said the number of concerns and issues relating to oversight across the group had led it to serve the Welfare Requirements Notice. Bright Horizons has been required to address all identified safeguarding and welfare failures by 1 August 2026.
The notice is intended to prompt urgent improvement at the highest level of the organisation. Ofsted said the action was aimed at ensuring higher standards for children across the group.
The regulator has also published an outcome summary on its reports page for each of Bright Horizons’ 247 settings. Ofsted said the summaries relate to organisational arrangements and do not necessarily mean that concerns were identified at every individual nursery.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said the outcome summary made clear what the Bright Horizons group must do and by when. He said Ofsted would monitor the group’s progress closely.
Oliver said parents should read the latest inspection report or update for their child’s nursery on the Ofsted website. He said the majority of Bright Horizons nurseries were meeting requirements and that reports and updates had already been published for all the nurseries visited by inspectors.
Ofsted said it would continue to monitor Bright Horizons’ response to ensure that the required actions are completed. The regulator said a Welfare Requirements Notice is issued where it 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.