Bright Horizons nursery families put company on notice of legal action

Represented by law firm Leigh Day, families have written to Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd ahead of the sentencing hearing for Chan, due to take place at Wood Green Crown Court on Thursday 12 February 2026.

In December 2025 Chan admitted 26 counts of abuse, 20 against female children at Bright Horizons nursery in Finchley Road, Camden, between August 2022 and March 2024.  His crimes include five counts of sexual assault by penetration, four counts of sexual assault by touching, 11 counts of taking indecent images and six counts of making indecent images.  

He has since admitted further sexual offences unrelated to Bright Horizons premises. 

The legal letter was sent on behalf of 12 families on Tuesday 23 December 2025, although numbers of families joining the legal claim are growing daily, with 45 registered by Friday 30 January 2026. Leigh Day is in contact with more than 85 families who have raised concerns about safeguarding failures at Bright Horizons, Finchley Road.  

Leigh Day is instructed by families of children identified as victims of Chan’s child sexual abuse and image-based offending and also by families whose children were mistreated by Chan in other ways, including making videos of children humiliated or in distress.  

The legal letter to Bright Horizons records families’ deep shock and distress at Chan’s crimes but also outlines their wider concerns about his behaviour towards nursery children. It notes his initial arrest on suspicion of neglect, and points to his misuse of electronic devices and the general standard of supervision and care at the nursery being lacking.  

Parents have told Leigh Day’s specialist abuse team that Chan shouted at young children, encouraged aggressive behaviour between children, and have shared their concerns about excessive injuries among children in the pre-school class, the circumstances of which were not properly explained to the parents, and changes in their children’s behaviour.  

Other families have expressed concerns about staffing, supervision, lack of sufficient understanding of safeguarding, poor staff morale, a high staff turnover and a consequent lack of consistency of care.   They believe that Bright Horizons as a company did not have effective safeguarding policies and systems to keep their children safe.  

Some families also say that they raised concerns with the nursery, both about these wider concerns and specifically Chan’s concerning behaviour towards children, but these were not acted on.  

The families have put Bright Horizons on notice that they are seeking accountability through claims for breach of contract for the company’s safeguarding failures that permitted Chan’s crimes, as well as neglect and cruelty.  

The legal claim against Bright Horizons is led by Alison Millar, partner and head of the Leigh Day abuse team, with Catriona Rubens, senior associate solicitor at Leigh Day, and solicitor Kane Jackson.  

A Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review of Bright Horizons Finchley Road is being undertaken by Camden Safeguarding Partnership following a Rapid Review begun on 6 November 2025.  

Families have provided the following statement:  

“What has happened here is not just about one individual or one nursery. We believe Chan's crimes raise serious questions about how childcare providers recruit, supervise and safeguard staff, and how warning signs can be overlooked over long periods of time.   

“In our case, Bright Horizons repeatedly dismissed concerns from parents about Chan’s behaviour, and we believe their consistent culture of brushing concerns aside was key to enabling this catastrophe to happen.   

“They will be seeking full accountability for those failures, initially through the civil courts, and are also urging Camden Council to investigate the case for prosecution of Bright Horizons as a corporate entity. 

“State institutions must treat this case with the utmost seriousness, act to uncover the full extent of offending, ensure accountability, and prevent similar harm in the future.” 

Leigh Day head of abuse team, partner Alison Millar said:  

“Families understandably are extremely concerned that a perpetrator was able to work at the nursery for so many years and misuse nursery devices to facilitate his offending. They are concerned about apparent lack of knowledge and understanding of safeguarding by managers and staff and a failure by the nursery to implement effective safeguarding policies, procedures and practices, including digital safeguarding.  

“They will be seeking full accountability for those failures, initially through the civil courts, but also are looking to the Metropolitan Police and Camden Council to investigate the case for prosecution of Bright Horizons as a corporate entity. 

“This case has to be treated with the utmost seriousness by state institutions to ensure that similar offending can never be allowed to happen again.”