Action for Children · 2025
This report analyses data from Action for Children's Parent Talk service, drawing on 318,866 parent contacts and 362 one-to-one coaching chats between 2022 and 2025, to examine rising demand for support around children's violent or abusive behaviour towards caregivers. It finds that demand for this support has risen 51% since 2022, and identifies strong links between children's violent behaviour and unmet SEND and mental health needs, school transitions, and emotionally-based school avoidance. Parents describe exhaustion, shame, and isolation, compounded by fragmented statutory services with high thresholds and long waiting times. The report recommends joined-up government action to treat children's violent behaviour as a safeguarding issue driven by unmet needs, and to improve early help access for families with adolescent children.