30 May 2025: A new summary report has been published following Words Matter’s expert- led crucial discussion at the House of Commons about why preventing childhood verbal abuse by adults should be central to the Government’s aim of raising the healthiest generation of children in history.
Chaired by Sharon Hodgson MP, the event focused on recent evidence highlighting the serious and lasting effects of verbal abuse – experienced by 2 in 5 children (41%) – which significantly impacts both individuals and wider society.
The event emphasised the need for verbal abuse prevention to become integral to national strategies for children’s health, mental wellbeing, education and safeguarding, calling for a fundamental societal change in how adults interact with children.
Speakers included:
- Professor Peter Fonagy – Head of the Division of Psychology & Language Sciences at UCL and Government Advisor
- Professor Eamon McCrory – CEO of Anna Freud and Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology at UCL
- Professor Karen Hughes – Professor of Public Health at Public Health Wales, Bangor University, and Expert Advisor to WHO
- Professor Andrea Danese – Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at King’s College London, and General Secretary of the European Association for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Jessica Bondy – Founder, Words Matter
More than 70 people attended, including MPs, Peers, policy advisors, child development and mental health professionals, educators, clinicians, public health experts, safeguarding leads and researchers.
This inaugural House of Commons discussion on childhood verbal abuse marked an important milestone. Panellists agreed that the current lack of policy recognition represents a significant missed opportunity to prevent lasting harm. The evidence presented was unequivocal: childhood verbal abuse by adults is neither benign nor inevitable – it is biologically embedded, formative, and wholly preventable. A coordinated, whole-society approach is urgently needed to ensure that words build rather than undermine the next generation.
Words Matter and its partners urge the Government to prioritise verbal abuse explicitly within forthcoming mental health, safeguarding and education policies, enabling the UK truly to raise the healthiest generation in history and break down barriers to opportunity.
ENDS