Parents of nursery abuse victims to meet minister

Parents of nursery abuse victims to meet minister 26 minutes ago Share Save Share Save 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. 'Depraved and devious' 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 thei...