“People want change. There are good people here trying,” said Desmond Brown, founder of Growing Futures.

His organization engages with young people involved in serious youth violence, including those affected by knife crime, and disadvantaged communities.

“When we have serious violence and murder of children by other children, what we see is hand-wringing and people getting very upset and looking for silver bullets for that moment,” he said.

“What we’re seeing after that is the medium- to long-term planning for how we solve these problems suddenly goes out the window and there’s a pause, and nothing ever happens.”

Mr Brown said that while community groups are coming together, he is “hard pressed to see material change on the ground”.

“I think we’re still stuck in a quagmire,” he said.