Let's Be Blunt: Why Prevention Must Start in Our Own Homes

By Leanne Lucas, Founder, Let's Be Blunt

After surviving a devastating knife attack, Leanne Lucas founded Let’s Be Blunt CIC to challenge one of the most overlooked risks in everyday life: the pointed-tip kitchen knife. Drawing on lived experience, research and national collaboration, she shows that meaningful knife crime prevention must start long before violence occurs.

What happened to me didn’t happen in a world that felt dangerous. It happened in a moment that, like so many others, should have been ordinary.

In seconds, everything changed.

The impact of that moment doesn’t end when the incident is over. It stays - in the physical, emotional and psychological reality that follows. It changes how you see the world and how you understand just how quickly harm can happen.

And what became impossible to ignore was this:

the weapon used was not unusual.

It was not rare.

It was not hard to access.

It was an everyday kitchen knife.

That realisation is what led to Let’s Be Blunt.

Let’s Be Blunt exists to create meaningful change, so fewer families ever have to experience the devastation that knife harm brings. It is about reducing risk before a moment of impulse, crisis or dysregulation occurs. Because once a knife is used, the damage is done. Prevention has to come earlier than that.

It is important to recognise that the majority of our work is not with those already on a criminal pathway. Instead, what we offer supports professionals, families and communities at an earlier stage. We deeply value the incredible work already being carried out by charities and services across the country, who are responding to harm and supporting those most affected.

Our focus sits alongside this at the earliest point of prevention. We aim to raise awareness of how risk can be quietly reduced, strengthening safeguarding and reducing the likelihood of harm - whether that be accidental injury, self-harm or harm caused to others - so that, wherever possible, families never find themselves facing situations they could never have imagined.

The foundation of Let’s Be Blunt focuses on how every individual can contribute towards the prevention of knife harm.

One of the simplest, yet most effective, places to start is the place we feel safest: our own homes. The traditional pointed-tip kitchen knife is something almost every household owns. But it is also one of the most easily accessible weapons - used in impulsive moments, during crises, or in situations that escalate quickly.

Many people don’t realise that an everyday kitchen knife - the one we barely think twice about - is the one most often used in sharp-instrument homicides. In the UK, the majority of these offences involve a kitchen knife.

With nothing more than an age check, it can be bought in a shop or online with ease. Once in the home, they are often stored in drawers, left on draining boards or displayed in knife blocks within easy reach. And while an object itself has no intent, once a pointed-tip kitchen knife is used in an act of violence, the consequences are life-changing.

Whilst progress is being made to address the availability of more extreme weapons, we must not overlook those that remain in plain sight.

The knives that are easy to access. Easy to conceal. Easy to misuse.

Because kitchen knives are so closely tied to everyday life and cooking, they have largely gone unquestioned. But that needs to change. By choosing safer, rounded-tip alternatives, we take a small, practical step that can have a meaningful impact. For most everyday cooking, the tip serves little purpose.

Almost all tools used in daily life have evolved over time to become safer. We have seen this with seatbelts, smoke alarms and product safety standards - changes that did not remove freedom, but reduced risk and saved lives. And yet the kitchen knife, despite what we now understand about risk, has seen little change in design. We have accepted it as standard, without questioning whether it still meets the needs of today’s society.

When used as a weapon, a pointed-tip can cause catastrophic injuries or fatalities. No meal prepared at home requires that level of risk. We already take steps to reduce harm in other areas of the home. This should be no different.

Prevention is not about eliminating all risk. But it is about reducing it wherever we can. We may not be able to prevent every act of violence, but we can reduce the likelihood of harm in those moments of impulsivity. And we can take responsibility for the tools we keep in the places we live, work, meet, learn and play.

There are simple, practical steps we can all take. We can start conversations with our family, friends and colleagues, raise awareness in the communities we work in and take personal action.

How many pointed-tip kitchen knives do you own? How many of them do you actually use? Would you know within a short period of time whether one had gone missing?

With that in mind, could you reduce the number of pointed-tip kitchen knives you own by safely disposing of them and choosing safer alternatives for your home and work place?

Let’s Be Blunt is already working with police forces, violence reduction units, local authorities, schools and communities across the country, with over 1,000 people having made a personal pledge to support safer knife practices.

Both Kent and Wigan have reported significant reductions in knife crime figures this year. Let’s Be Blunt forms part of their wider prevention approach. The success of the National Safer Knife Replacement scheme, led by Caley Walden from Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit, has been phenomenal. And in Wigan alone, over 2,700 knives have been collected since July 2025 through safe disposal points across the borough.

While no single initiative can claim responsibility for such changes, these partnerships show how prevention-led thinking can contribute to wider efforts to make communities safer. Prevention is a jigsaw, and safer knife design, access and opportunity are one important piece of that picture.

Another example of this preventative approach can be seen in the launch of the UK’s first Safer Knife Campus at De Montfort University, where safer knife design has been introduced in areas where food is prepared. Initiatives like this demonstrate that institutions do not have to wait for national policy change to start thinking differently about safety. They can lead that change themselves.

This work is strengthened by collaboration with leading experts, including the Safer Knife Group, Leisa Nichols-Drew (forensic scientist) and Duncan Bew (leading UK trauma surgeon), whose research and expertise underpin this approach.

Evidence from forensic research shows that knives without a pointed-tip can significantly reduce the severity and likelihood of fatal injuries, without compromising everyday use.

Together, this combination of lived experience, research, and frontline expertise shapes a prevention approach that is credible, practical and purposeful.

But this is only the beginning. If we want different outcomes, we need a different approach.

This requires new mindset - one that prioritises prevention before harm occurs.

Because the reality is simple: we all have a role to play. It’s time to make a kitchen knife without a point the new norm.  

Make the change. Save a life. Take the pledge: https://www.letsbeblunt.co.uk

Leanne Lucas is the founder of Let’s Be Blunt CIC, a prevention-led campaign focused on reducing knife harm through awareness and safer design. She is a member of the Home Office Knife Crime Coalition and works with police, universities, policymakers and community organisations to promote prevention-led approaches to
public safety.