Parents of nursery abuse victims to meet minister

Families whose children attended the nursery in north London where paedophile Vincent Chan worked will meet Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to press for safeguarding reforms.

Former nursery employee Chan was jailed for 18 years last month for abusing children who attended Bright Horizons nursery on Finchley Road, West Hampstead. Chan's campaign of sexual abuse was dubbed "every parent's worst nightmare".

Parents of some of Chan's victims are taking action against Bright Horizons and have called for the nursery itself to be prosecuted.

The families are calling on the government to make sure nurseries are "closed to predators" and parents can raise concerns safely.

In a statement, they said: "Chan was able to commit his crimes because safeguarding failed.

"We believe these failures created the perfect hunting ground for a predator.

"We want accountability for all failures, and we are determined to make sure other children are protected from similar harm."

The families will call for an early-warning system that would allow parents and whistleblowers to report concerns in early-years settings to an independent external body.

They are also advocating for the use of body-worn video in early-years settings, a mandatory two-adult supervision rule for larger settings and stronger safeguards for the use of nursery-owned devices.

Law firm Leigh Day, which represents 52 affected families, sent an initial legal letter to Bright Horizons in December.

Alison Millar, head of the abuse team at Leigh Day, said: "We have only recently begun investigating what happened at Bright Horizons Finchley Road Nursery but already we are hearing from parents that they raised concerns about staffing and supervision and the concerning way that the individual perpetrator was interacting with children; however, these concerns were not addressed.

"We wholly support the families in their calls for early-warning escalation and stronger safeguarding standards."

Phillipson announced a local child safeguarding practice review in December to "learn every lesson we can to make sure that crimes like this are guarded against at every step and every stage".

Pressed at the time to mandate CCTV in nurseries, Phillipson said this could lead to other forms of child abuse if footage was misused.

She appointed an expert advisory group to develop guidance for the sector on the safe and effective use of CCTV.

Education minister Olivia Bailey told MPs in January the government was "considering the mandatory use of CCTV in early-years settings" as part of the review.

Chan worked at the Bright Horizons nursery for seven years until he was suspended in 2024, after a colleague raised concerns about him.

The whistleblower complained that Chan had filmed a child falling asleep and set the footage to music, in a bid to entertain his colleagues.

The Metropolitan Police investigation that followed unearthed Chan's collection of more than 25,000 indecent images of children.

Among them were videos taken by Chan himself as he sexually assaulted some of the children at the nursery while they were sleeping.

He admitted 56 offences in total.

In a statement after Chan's sentencing, Bright Horizons said: "Keeping children safe is our most important responsibility. Vincent Chan broke that trust.

"His actions were depraved and devious and go against the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide to children each day."

The company, which has nurseries across the country, said it is increasing awareness of ways staff can escalate concerns so that they do so quickly and confidentially.

It added it has "extensive safeguarding practices and training requirements in place", and it has "brought forward several internal safeguarding audits and refresher trainings to ensure staff are fully aware of their obligations".

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