I remember those initial heart-wrenching days and weeks leaving my daughter, aged nine months, at the nursery. She was distraught as I left, and I – like so many parents – headed off to work feeling guilty for leaving her, wondering if I was doing the right thing. Every parent does the research and nursery visits, reads the Ofsted reports and assumes that the staff in their chosen nursery will have the necessary qualifications and training to take care of their child. Obviously, there will be hiccups along the way, but never in your wildest nightmares do you think your child might be physically – or worse still, sexually – abused.

Yet the harrowing case of Vincent Chan, a former nursery worker in Camden, north London, who pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual assault and 17 counts of taking or making indecent photos of children, hit the headlines last week, leaving parents with young children across the country feeling physically sick and asking the question: How did this happen? Tragically, this is not an isolated case.

In September, Roksana Lecka was sentenced to eight years in prison for 21 counts of child cruelty at Riverside Nursery in Twickenham Green and a nursery in Hounslow. Last year, Kate Roughley was jailed for manslaughter following neglect of baby Gigi Meehan at a nursery in Cheadle, Greater Manchester. The BBC’s Panorama investigation exposed a litany of cases of poor care and neglect in nurseries across the country.

No parent should be left worrying about the safety of their child as they head off for a day’s work.........

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