Inside the classroom trying to steer London's children away from a life of crime
In a north London classroom, three girls tentatively raise their hand. Each, aged 13 and 14, has just admitted that they have already been targeted by criminals trying to groom them into so-called 'county lines' drug dealing gangs.
None of them is ready to share the full details of their encounter with the recruiters, which typically include knives, threats against their families or playground tricks which see children targeted by bullies, only to be saved by an influential gang member who will take them under their wing.
The three girls make up almost a third of the class at the hard-hitting after-school workshop, where expert mentors try to steer at-risk children away from a life of exploitation, knife crime and gangs.
It is possible that other children in the room, not yet prepared to admit it, have also been targeted or have friends who have 'gone country' and found themselves trapped in a dangerous criminal underworld, where child drug runners are 'debt bonded' or intimidated into compliance.
Most caught in this cycle of criminality carry knives to protect themselves and drop out of school, frequently going missing as they work from properties that have been ''cuckoo'd' – when gangs take over a vulnerable person's home to sell drugs.
But through early intervention sessions designed to challenge negative behaviours using creative arts and motivational strategies, the teens are taught key skills and conflict resolution in a bid to turn them away from violence.
During the crucial after-school hours, in which vulnerable youngsters are at the highest risk of being exploited or falling into crime, they meet with The Safety Box for workshops funded by London's Violence Reduction Unit (VRU).
The children chant affirmations of 'shift, adjust, rise above it' as they are taken through a series of scenarios, including practical exercises in what to do when someone threatens you with a knife on the bus.
The tactics – seen as part of a public health approach to tackling knife crime – are delivering results, as experts call for the government to invest more in addressing the root causes of youth violence as they battle to halve knife crime in a decade.
Last month shocking figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that the number of children murdered with knives has soared by 240 per cent in the past ten years.
In the same week, the government announced a raft of new measures to crack down on knife sales under 'Ronan's Law', including tougher punishments of up to two years in prison for selling knives to under 18s.
Those who groom children into county lines drug dealing could also be jailed for up to 10 years in separate new legislation announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on Tuesday, with 'cuckooing' also set to be outlawed with offenders facing up to five years inside.
Meanwhile, the government is still considering proposals, first mooted by actor and knife crime campaigner Idris Elba, for all kitchen knives to have rounded ends.
While the measures are welcome, Lib Peck, the director of London's VRU, called for the conversation to be refocussed on preventing violence, rather than responding to it.
The capital's VRU was founded by the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in 2019 to coordinate a multiagency approach to early intervention, collaborating with police, education and healthcare providers, local councils, youth workers and parents. Later that year, the Home Office backed the scheme and established 17 other VRUs across the country.
'I think the most important thing is to recalibrate the conversation so we are talking much more about what are the long-term causes, what are the drivers of violence, and what we're doing to make sure that we're putting as much emphasis and as much investment into prevention as we possibly can,' Ms Peck told The Independent, adding that reinvesting a fraction of the £3 million spent on dealing with violence in London every day on prevention would 'go so much further'.
Their work has already reaped rewards, with eight in ten schools reporting increased attendance and improved behaviour after the VRU put mentors in pupil referral units for excluded children.
They have also embedded youth workers in hospitals and police custody suites, with 90 per cent of under 18s they engage with not going on to reoffend within 12 months.
Nathaniel Peat, 45, founded the The Safety Box 18 years ago. It has worked with almost 30,000 young people in the past five years with a team of staff trained in cognitive behavioural therapy and life-coaching, 80 per cent of which are ex-offenders themselves.
Their real-life experience of criminal justice combined with key mentoring skills make them 'one of the most powerful tools we can use,', Mr Peat said.
Hudson,17, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, hit rock bottom and was looking at serious jail time after he was arrested with an illegal zombie knife and £2000 worth of Class A drugs. But he turned his life around after 13 months of intensive wrap-around support with one of their mentors.
While Hudson was living at this grandmother's house wearing a monitoring tag, the team were the only people allowed to take him out during proscribed hours.
He had started selling drugs to make money when his brother was charged with attempted murder and soon found himself in a cycle of arrests and reoffending. He was so high risk, no care home would take him.
90 per cent
'I started realising it's not as good as what I thought,' he told The Independent. 'The people I was on for they were just trying to set me up.
'If they [Safety Box] had never been in my life I would probably be in jail right now. I was getting arrested every other month and that. And now they intervened they showed me that's not what your life needs to be about.'
He said his mentor took him to places he had never seen before – even a trip to watch his beloved Manchester United play as incentive.
'And they're just like, look, this is what you can do if you just stop hanging around people like that, and showed me basically the good side of life that I've never seen before,' he added.
Michael, also 17, said he felt 'like he had nothing to lose' when he started selling drugs to make money. He has lost two friends to knife crime but is now focussed on building his career as a rapper with the support of a Safety Box mentor after he was charged with theft and grievous bodily harm. However, without more funding, they are struggling to nurture his musical talent.
Michael called for the conversation around knife crime to change, saying tactics like tougher sentencing make no difference.
'I think they need to have a different approach towards knife crime,' he told The Independent.
'As a young person, me growing up in the street and having to fear for my life just for being from an area is don't really give me that option to put knives down.
'It starts from one person carrying a knife. Then another person out of fear. Then it just carries on.'
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