Keeping Everyone Safe

Company Statement: Bright Horizons' response to the sentencing of Vincent Chan.

"This is a deeply distressing time for families and all those impacted by Vincent Chan’s horrific crimes and our thoughts remain first and foremost with them.

Keeping Everyone Safe is our most important responsibility. Vincent Chan broke that trust in the worst possible way - his actions were depraved, devious and go against the kindness and care our dedicated professionals provide to children each day.

His actions represent not only a violation of the victims, but also a profound betrayal of the trust placed in him by families and colleagues.

We are shocked and appalled that he was able to commit these horrific crimes and cannot begin to comprehend how upsetting it is for those involved and the wider community. We are profoundly sorry for the distress this has caused and are fully committed to take any learnings to improve our systems and processes.

While we appreciate that no length of sentence can undo what has happened, we support the outcome of these proceedings.

We fully support the Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) and hope that it will be beneficial for families, for us as a provider and for the Early Years industry as a whole. We are equally committed to understanding as much information as possible so that we and the wider industry can take the learning to improve systems and processes.

Our organisation’s mission is to protect and nurture young children. We employ over 8,500 experienced colleagues in our nurseries who work tirelessly and with dedication every day to look after the children in our care.

We have extensive safeguarding practices in place, designed to create safe environments for children to learn and grow. These include rigorous recruitment vetting and checking procedures. This individual had an enhanced DBS and was reference-checked.

Whilst this individual’s actions came to light after a colleague raised concerns and followed our internal whistle-blowing procedures to report him and we then shared our concerns externally, prompting the original Police investigation, we fully accept that the evidence shows the individual was able to commit these crimes despite our safeguarding measures. In light of this, we have commissioned an external expert in this field to undertake a full review of our safeguarding practices.

At Bright Horizons, the safety and wellbeing of children is at the heart of everything we do and our dedicated colleagues in nurseries continue to focus on the care and education of children each day."

Bright Horizons Ongoing Commitment to Transparency

What happened at our former Finchley Road Nursery in North London was an appalling breach of trust by one individual and we acknowledge how devastating this is for the families affected. We are fully committed to taking learning from this case.

We know this case has understandably raised many questions among families and in the media. While we may not have every answer right now, we’ve shared information relating to the most common questions to provide clarity and reassurance where we can.

Bright Horizons Safeguarding Practices

We recognise that safeguarding begins from the moment a candidate indicates an interest in working for us. As such, we have robust Safer Recruitment procedures which comply with relevant regulations.

If we are satisfied that the candidate is suitable to join our team, we then have a robust induction and training process to ensure colleagues have the knowledge and skills required to perform their role.

Thereafter, we have procedures which ensure ongoing safer employment, which are designed to make sure colleagues continue to meet our required standards and keep up to date on relevant changes and developments to our internal policies and procedures.

Further relevant information is below:

Our Recruitment Processes - Keeping Everyone Safe

• Safety is at the heart of what we do. Our colleagues are well trained and often have decades of experience.
• Every candidate goes through a two-stage interview, including an in-person supervised assessment in the nursery to check their experience, values, and suitability for working with children.
• Comprehensive background checks include enhanced DBS checks, overseas criminal checks where needed, and verifications of references from previous employers are also completed.
• We review any gaps in employment history, confirm qualifications, and complete health questionnaires to ensure candidates can provide safe, high-quality care.
• Our dedicated onboarding team follows strict safeguarding standards, and ensures colleagues are safe and suitable before they start work in our nurseries.

In relation to the individual involved in this incident:

• Their previous references were suitable and did not raise any concerns that would indicate they were unsafe to work with children.
• We ensured that they held a suitable enhanced-DBS and that they had completed a Barred List Check, (this Enhanced DBS check was repeated during the course of their employment in line with best practice).
• There were no gaps in their employment history.

What We Are Doing to Ensure We Are Keeping Children Safe

In light of this case, we have taken positive action to ensure our safeguarding practices are robustly and consistently embedded in all of our nurseries.

Since we first became aware of the charges, we have taken prompt action which includes:

Highlighting our Focus on Safeguarding With Our Nursery Teams

• We created a dedicated senior team to lead on our organisational approach and reinforce how our policies and procedures are fully embedded in our nurseries and culture. 
• Our senior leaders are ensuring nursery teams are embedding our safeguarding practices effectively during their leadership visits.
• We have brought forward the timing of many of our internal safeguarding audits so that our colleagues have reassurance that they are implementing procedures correctly.
• As part of our ongoing personal development, we have also brought forward our regular refresher training on safeguarding practices. 

Reinforcing our Culture of Accountability and Escalation of Concerns

• Whilst this individual’s actions came to light after a colleague raised concerns and followed our internal whistle-blowing procedures to escalate which led to the Police investigation, we are heightening awareness of ways to escalate concerns to give colleagues increased confidence to raise these quickly and confidentially through a personal accountability campaign, ‘Sense Something, Say Something’.

Ensuring Best Practice

• We’ve engaged an independent external safeguarding expert to provide a further level of review and scrutiny to ensure, as an organisation, we meet the most robust standards.

Our Commitment to Families

We have and will continue to co-operate fully and transparently with the Police investigation. We also understand this case will be the subject of a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR), and we are committed to supporting this, ensuring the lessons can be taken across the sector.  Once the full facts are known, we will act swiftly and rigorously to ensure lessons are learned from this terrible incident.

How Are Digital Devices Used Within Our Nurseries?

iPads:

Ipads have been used for several years as part of our communications strategy with parents to share updates of their children during the day through our Famly app. Unacceptably, this individual was able to misuse our iPads.

Whilst the specific detail of how this was done is not yet known to us, we do know that the individual was extremely proficient in the use of technology. This is not a skill set that all our colleagues have (or are required to have) but in light of this incident we are committed to educating them further on the use (and misuse) of technology and the importance of complying with our internal use requirements. To allow us to do this effectively, we are conducting a full review of the use and security of iPads in our nurseries. 

Phones and Smart Watches:

We require colleagues to ‘check in’ their mobile phones and smart watches before entering nursery rooms. Colleagues are allowed to use their devices during their breaks in staff areas but no phones or smart watches are allowed in children’s rooms.

Closed Circuit Cameras:

After reviewing our approach, we will begin introducing closed circuit cameras in areas of some of our nurseries as part of ongoing developments to our safeguarding practice. Cameras will never replace skilled staff, but modern systems may provide an additional layer of oversight.

This won’t be a one‑size‑fits‑all decision. Any use of closed circuit cameras will be tailored to each nursery and guided by parental feedback, expert advice, privacy rights, and other relevant considerations.

In Nursery

Our nursery colleagues are trained and required to put children’s welfare first. We have procedures that further detail safeguarding and child protection, including:

• How to respond to concerns or suspected abuse
• What to do if a child makes a disclosure
• Procedures for monitoring attendance and unexplained injuries
• Managing allegations and reporting concerns
• Safe colleague deployment and supervision
• Use of mobile phones, cameras, and digital devices
• Welcoming and ID checking visitors

In addition, colleagues receive regular safeguarding training and ongoing support to ensure they are always up to date with best practice.

Each colleague has their own individual training record which includes internal training, any training from the Local Authority and other organisations.

Colleagues are also trained and instructed on:

• Respectful and Safe Relationships All colleagues, parents, contractors, and visitors are expected to follow a code of conduct that ensures respectful, positive interactions with children at all times.
• Working Together We work in partnership with parents, carers, children, and external agencies. We encourage everyone to speak up if they have any concerns, and we respond quickly and appropriately to any issues raised.
• Confidentiality and Information Sharing We handle all information about children and families with care and in line with Data Protection law, sharing details only with those who need to know to keep children safe.
• Regular Review and Improvement Our safeguarding policies are reviewed at least every three years, or sooner if needed, to make sure they remain robust and effective.

If you are a Bright Horizons’ nursery parent and would like to find out more about our Safeguarding policies and procedures, please contact your Nursery Manager to arrange a time to discuss this further.