Josh was just nine years old when his mother died of cancer. After that he would come home from school to an empty house, as his father worked night shifts as a security guard. While this gave him freedom to stay out late, it left him vulnerable: home was a tough housing estate in Harlesden where gang violence and stabbings were common. As he entered secondary school, Josh saw only two paths open to him: “Join a gang and get involved in crime, or find a minimum-wage job and get by.”
Five miles to the south, in the Church Street ward of Westminster where child poverty rates are over 55 per cent, 11-year-old Luna struggled for different reasons. She was shy and lacked confidence so she hid at the back of the class, hoping nobody would notice her. At one parent-teacher evening, her science teacher asked her name because he had forgotten it, and the humiliation stung in front of her parents. She would frequently return home in tears after being “picked on” by other girls.
