Bright Horizons New Church Road, Hove Day Nursery and Preschool

Summary of outcome

All early years providers must meet the legal requirements in the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage, which you can find at www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-foundation-stage-framework--2. If we find that a provider is not meeting the requirements, we can take action to ensure they put matters right.

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Summary of outcome

From September 2025, we received concerns following a serious safeguarding incident, which indicated that Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited may not be meeting requirements relating to safeguarding and welfare.

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Summary of outcome

Between October 2025 and June 2026, we carried out regulatory activity across multiple regions. This activity included inspections, regulatory visits, regulatory telephone calls and direct engagement with senior leaders across the provider's provision. We found that the provider was not meeting a number of the safeguarding and welfare requirements due to significant weaknesses in organisational safeguarding leadership, governance, oversight and practice.

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Summary of outcome

We have served a Welfare Requirements Notice on Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited. This is a legal notice that requires the provider to take the actions below within the timescales set out. These actions relate to organisational arrangements and do not necessarily reflect concerns identified at every individual setting. Some settings continue to meet requirements; however, the provider has not demonstrated that it can ensure safeguarding is consistently effective across its provision. The provider will be able to give parents further information about this.

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that all senior leaders are fully familiar with, and are able to effectively apply safeguarding policies, procedures and arrangements within their oversight role

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that safeguarding policies, procedures and arrangements are consistently and effectively implemented across all settings

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that Senior leaders, including the Nominated Individual, maintain accurate and timely oversight of safeguarding concerns and risks across the organisation, so that appropriate and timely action is taken to protect children

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that safeguarding concerns are consistently identified, recorded, escalated and responded to appropriately across all settings, including consideration of emerging patterns and cumulative risk, in line with statutory safeguarding guidance.

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that the procedures to manage allegations against staff are consistently followed across the settings, including the timely and accurate identification and escalation of concerns, recognition of when a concerns meet the threshold for an allegation, prompt referral to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and notification to Ofsted where required. Ensure these actions are subject to appropriate organisational oversight.

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Summary of outcome

n review and strengthen current arrangements for monitoring safeguarding training, supervision and support to ensure these are effective in securing consistent staff understanding and application of safeguarding responsibilities across all settings, including recognition of child protection concerns, escalation routes and whistleblowing procedures.

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that any weaknesses in staff knowledge or practise of safeguarding responsibilities are swiftly addressed, and that robust and effective systems are in place to monitor and evaluate the impact of training and supervision on safeguarding practice.

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Summary of outcome

Between 3 and 28 August 2026, we carried out monitoring activity to evaluate the provider's response. This included reviewing information submitted by the provider, direct engagement with senior leaders and evaluating inspection and regulatory activity undertaken across settings operated by Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited.

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Summary of outcome

We found that the provider had taken some action to strengthen safeguarding arrangements across the organisation. This included changes to safeguarding governance arrangements, organisational monitoring and oversight processes, quality assurance activity, staff supervision arrangements and safeguarding training. Monitoring activity identified some improvements in these areas as a result of the organisational changes.

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Summary of outcome

However, monitoring activity also identified continuing weaknesses in safeguarding practice and organisational assurance of this. In some settings, safeguarding concerns were not identified, assessed, escalated or managed appropriately. We also found that the provider's monitoring, quality assurance and oversight arrangements did not consistently identify weaknesses in safeguarding practice before regulatory intervention was required. Further regulatory action was taken at some settings during the monitoring period. This is published on our website under the setting's name, either in inspection reports or outcome summaries.

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Summary of outcome

While the provider has made measurable progress in response to the Welfare Requirements Notice, it has not demonstrated that processes to respond to safeguarding concerns are sufficiently embedded or managed consistently and effectively across their provision. As a result, we are not assured that leaders can consistently demonstrate effective organisational oversight of safeguarding concerns and risks.

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Summary of outcome

We have therefore served a further provider-level Welfare Requirements Notice on Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited. This is a legal notice that requires the provider to take the actions below within the timescales set out. These actions relate to organisational arrangements and do not reflect concerns identified at each individual setting.

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Summary of outcome

EYFS 3.9 Concerns about children's safety and welfare

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that leaders can demonstrate that safeguarding concerns are consistently identified, assessed, escalated and managed appropriately across the provider's provision, in accordance with safeguarding policies, procedures and local safeguarding partner requirements EYFS 3.5 Safeguarding Policies and Procedures

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Summary of outcome

n ensure that leaders maintain effective organisational oversight of safeguarding concerns and can demonstrate through monitoring, quality assurance and governance arrangements that safeguarding concerns are identified and acted upon appropriately across the provider's provision

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Summary of outcome

n embed arrangements for monitoring safeguarding training, supervision and support to ensure these are effective in securing consistent staff understanding and application of safeguarding responsibilities across all settings, including recognition of child protection concerns, escalation routes and whistleblowing procedures.

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Summary of outcome

We will monitor the provider's response to ensure that the actions are successfully completed. The provider is still registered with Ofsted.

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Publication of compliance action

We aim to ensure that the welfare of children and young people is protected in the services we regulate. The Childcare Act 2006 and accompanying regulations set out our responsibilities to regulate childminders and childcare providers. This includes the enforcement powers we have in relation to those registered providers who do not comply with the requirements for registration.

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Publication of compliance action

We publish details of any actions we take, or the childminder or childcare provider takes to bring about compliance with requirements on our website for a period of five years.

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Publication of compliance action

For further information please read the Early years compliance handbook which can be found here at www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-provider-non-compliance- action-by-ofsted .

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