Professor Frances Gardner, Professor of Child and Family Psychology at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of Wolfson College, has been appointed as a Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in the King’s Birthday Honours list 2025. The honour recognises her services to reducing violence against children.
Professor Gardner, also Fellow of Wolfson College, has led research on reducing child behaviour problems and violence against children for over 30 years, work that has influenced policy makers in the UK, and in many countries in Europe and across the world. Her research investigates how parenting interventions – the structured activities which help parents and carers improve parent-child interactions – can change outcomes for children. Her work shows that these interventions are highly effective for reducing violence against children, as well as child behavioural difficulties. Moreover, they can be adapted and transferred across cultures and countries, and are helpful for families troubled by poor mental health, or who are marginalised, or living in humanitarian contexts.
Professor Gardner led the evidence reviews for the first ever WHO Guidelines on parenting interventions for reducing maltreatment of children and served on the Guideline expert group. She presented these findings at WHO’s first Global Ministerial Conference on ending violence against children in Bogota in 2024, where her evidence contributed to pledges made by Ministers from over 100 countries to enact policies for reducing violence against children.
She is co-developer of the Parenting for Lifelong Health programmes, a suite of low-cost parenting programmes led by experts from the Global South and North, together with the WHO, UNICEF, and NGO implementing partners. Now led by UK charity PLH, the aim is to co-create, adapt, test and implement culturally relevant and scalable parenting programmes to reduce the risk of violence against children and improve child wellbeing in low and middle-income countries. As part of the Global Parenting Initiative, her projects include parenting interventions in primary healthcare in Thailand, in the cash transfer system in the Philippines, and in the pre-school system in Malaysia.
“I am deeply honoured to receive this award but, more importantly, I am delighted that it raises awareness of the crucial work being undertaken around the world to support parents and reduce violence against children.
This is a true team effort, made possible by WHO and UNICEF’s unwavering advocacy for policy backed by strong evidence, and the support of the Department of Social Policy and Intervention - especially the innovative research of generations of our amazing students and postdocs, who have gone on to become our collaborators and leaders in this work." Professor Frances Gardener
Professor Gardner was founder director of the graduate programme in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) which began in 2003. In 2021, she was awarded the prestigious Academy of Social Sciences Fellowship, which recognises excellence and impact in the social sciences.
