I stand before you as both a witness and a victim of the after effects of domestic violence. This anguishing experience has had a profound and lasting impact not only on myself but, most significantly, on my innocent children. We are just a fraction of the countless families shattered by domestic violence across the United Kingdom. This generational trauma, passed down over time, is a scourge that our children—our nation’s most vulnerable assets—are at an elevated risk of enduring.

Domestic abuse directly contributes to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), which, as extensively researched, can lead to devastating outcomes such as:

• Twice the likelihood of experiencing depression in adulthood.
• Three times greater risk of developing anxiety. 
• Up to four times higher risk of suicidal thoughts.
• Increased vulnerability to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, lung disease, and diabetes.
• A sevenfold increase in the likelihood of alcoholism and substance misuse (SAMHSA.gov).
• A 12% increase in the likelihood of hazardous drinking for each additional ACE.

The impact of ACEs extends far beyond individual suffering; it contributes to the collapse of society, leading to crime, addiction, and broken families. The question we must ask ourselves is: where do we break this cycle?

The Need for Early Intervention in Schools

The most effective way to prevent domestic violence is to educate our children before the patterns of abuse take root. Schools are uniquely positioned to provide this intervention, yet the current Personal, Social, Health, and Economic (PSHE) curriculum is left to the discretion of individual schools, resulting in inconsistency and a lack of priority for this critical subject.

We demand the Department for Education:

1. Mandate age-appropriate domestic violence education from Year One.
2. Standardise PSHE curriculum time allocation and remove school discretion.
3. Establish PSHE as a mandatory GCSE, ensuring that all students graduate with formal education on healthy relationships, coercion, consent, and the long-term impacts of domestic abuse.

Why This Matters

Studies consistently show that children exposed to domestic violence are at greater risk of becoming either victims or perpetrators of abuse themselves. Without intervention, the cycle continues:

Abuse in parents relationship → Children grow up surrounded by abuse → Normalisation of violent behaviour → Trauma carried into adulthood → Perpetration or acceptance of abuse in future relationships → Cycle repeats.

The answer is early education. We cannot afford to wait until individuals have already become abusers or victims before attempting to rehabilitate them. Studies on perpetrator rehabilitation programmes, including the UK’s Building Better Relationships (BBR) initiative, reveal limited effectiveness, with high reoffending rates and a lack of long-term behavioural change.

If we focus on the child rather than just the adult, we create an opportunity to reshape societal norms before toxic behaviour patterns form.

Why Schools? The Failure of Existing Systems

Schools represent the only institution where every child in the UK can be reached. Yet, despite the Department for Education’s claim that Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is a priority, it receives minimal classroom time—often just 30 minutes to 1 hour per week, overshadowed by subjects that boost exam league table rankings.

Sex education was formally introduced in the UK curriculum in 1976, yet teenage pregnancies, STDs, and unsafe sexual practices remain prevalent. If such critical topics can be overlooked despite decades of mandated education, what hope do we have for domestic violence prevention when it is given even less classroom focus?

A National Crisis with a £66 Billion Annual Cost

Domestic abuse costs the UK an estimated £66 billion per year (Home Office, 2019). This figure includes emergency services, legal proceedings, loss of workplace productivity, and healthcare costs.

To put this into perspective, the UK government allocated £4.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2023, yet fails to provide adequate funding for domestic abuse prevention programmes. This disparity raises serious questions about national priorities.

If we can ban smoking in public places and regulate food marketing to combat obesity, why is there no nationwide public health intervention to tackle domestic abuse—the root cause of countless societal ills? The answer lies in negligence and an unwillingness to disrupt a broken system that benefits privatised services.

Our Demand: Education as Prevention, Not Reaction

We must shift our approach from crisis intervention to proactive prevention. PSHE must be recognised as a core GCSE subject, equal in status to English, Maths, and Science.

Why are we prioritising STEM over generational life-saving education on domestic violence, coercion, and ACEs?

The long-term impact of failing to educate children on healthy relationships extends beyond individual households—it influences crime rates, mental health crises, substance abuse, and economic instability.

Will you allow the silent decay of our nation to continue unchecked?

Sign the Petition. Demand Change. Save Lives.

Every child exposed to domestic violence/ ACE is a life at risk of being permanently marked by trauma.

We must act now. Join me in urging the UK government to mandate domestic violence education in schools and make PSHE a compulsory, graded GCSE subject. We have the power to change the future—let’s use it.