Tackling Knife Harm Starts at Home
Let's Be Blunt is a Community Interest Company dedicated to reducing knife harm through practical, everyday actions. We focus on the role everyone can play by choosing safer kitchen knife design.
Our mission is to drive social change by encouraging simple preventative steps in our homes and shared spaces - because tackling knife harm starts with the choices we make every day.
Key Initiatives
Safer Knife Choices
Driving the shift from pointed-tip knives to safer, rounded-tip alternatives within homes, education settings and community spaces.
Safe Knife Disposal Points
Working alongside the authorities to increase the presence of safe and easily accessible knife disposal points.
Awareness, Education & Empowerment
Increasing awareness and instilling a greater sense of responsibility through education.
Normalising Safer Knives
Encouraging people and organisations to choose safer knife designs as part of everyday prevention.
Statistics Snapshot
Domestic homicides committed using kitchen knives
Kitchen knives used in sharp instrument homicides
76%
46%
Remove the Point. Reduce the Harm.
"A prevention-led initiative focused on safer knife design and everyday harm reduction."
A word from our founder
I’m Leanne, founder of Let’s Be Blunt CIC.
Let’s Be Blunt takes a prevention-led approach to knife harm, focusing on practical, evidence-informed actions that reduce risk across everyday environments. Rooted in lived experience and informed by frontline insight, our work supports communities and institutions to make safer choices.
Lasting change comes from embedding prevention into the environments people move through daily - and into the systems that support them.
Why Change Matters
A New Safety Standard
Each year, everyday kitchen knives are involved in serious harm, often not through intent but through accessibility. Design plays a critical role in shaping risk.
Safer alternatives, such as rounded-tip kitchen knives, reduce the likelihood of severe injury while remaining fully functional for everyday use. Like seatbelts and smoke alarms, changes in design can shift norms, reduce harm, and strengthen public safety at scale.
Lived Experience
This work is informed by lived experience of knife harm, bringing real-world insight into how violence affects individuals, families, and communities. That perspective helps shape practical, compassionate approaches to prevention - focusing on reducing risk before harm occurs.
Access & Opportunity
Prevention also means reducing access to high-risk items in everyday environments, including homes, educational settings, and public or organisational spaces.
At the same time, we must increase opportunities for safer choices. Small changes to the environments people move through every day can have a meaningful impact on community safety.
Our
Story
Let’s Be Blunt was created in response to a reality many people hear about, but few expect to experience first-hand.
In 2024, our founder, Leanne, was delivering wellbeing events for children and families in Southport. These sessions focused on connection, creativity, and emotional wellbeing. During one such event, that environment was suddenly disrupted by a knife crime attack.
The impact was immediate and lasting - not only for those present, but for families, professionals and the wider community. It highlighted how knife harm reaches far beyond the criminal justice system, affecting everyday places and people who would never expect to encounter violence.
That moment became the catalyst for Let's Be Blunt - a prevention-led initiative focused on practical action to reduce risk and make everyday environments safer.
Because preventing knife harm shouldn't start after violence happens - it should start before.
Our Initiatives
Through these key initiatives, we work to reduce knife harm and support safer communities through practical, prevention-led focused action.
Rounded-tip Knives
Aim: To support a shift away from pointed-tip kitchen knives towards safer rounded-tip alternatives in homes and everyday settings.
We work with manufacturers and retailers to increase the availability of blunt-end kitchen knives that maintain full cooking functionality while reducing the potential for serious harm.
Evidence-led testing shows rounded-tip knives remain effective for everyday food preparation, while significantly lowering the risk of severe injury if misused.
Safe Disposal Points
Aim: To work alongside local authorities to increase access to safe, accessible knife disposal points.
We support the introduction of knife disposal points in partnership with local authorities, encouraging responsible disposal and reducing everyday risk.
These disposal points are designed to be secure, anonymous, and located in familiar environments such as recycling centres, helping to normalise safe disposal as part of routine household behaviour.
Awareness, Education and Empowerment
Aim: To equip people working across homes, education, and public services with practical knowledge to reduce everyday knife-related risk.
We provide guidance, learning sessions, and resources for professionals, parents, and organisations supporting young people and vulnerable groups.
Our focus is on informed decision-making, safer environments, and practical actions that can be embedded into everyday practice.
This work helps people in trusted roles feel confident having important conversations and making small change that contribute to safer communities over time.
Statistics & Facts
Understanding the scale of knife crime helps us recognise the importance of taking action.
Key Statistics
109
Lives lost to kitchen knives in 2024
46%
Kitchen knives used in sharp instrument homicides
95
Lives lost to kitchen knives in 2025
76%
Homicides committed with kitchen knives in homes
Every Day Access, Real-World Risk
Serious harm is often shaped by what is immediately available in everyday environments. Evidence shows that access matters.
In 2024, kitchen knives were the most frequently used weapon in homicides involving sharp instruments, accounting for 109 lives lost - an 8% increase on the previous year.
In the home, kitchen knives are involved in 76% of sharp-instrument homicides, highlighting the role of everyday environments.
Kitchen knives account for 46% of all homicide weapons, making them the most commonly used overall.
Evidence consistently shows that availability and access, rather than intent alone, play a significant role in serious violence - reinforcing the importance of safer design and disposal.
Reducing risk at the point of access is a practical evidence-informed way to prevent harm before it occurs.
Partnerships
We are proud to partner with various charities and organisations, working together to create meaningful change and make a positive impact in our communities.
Media & News
Sharing updates, partnerships, and progress from our prevention-led work to reduce knife harm.
Follow our work on Instagram
Latest Updates
We are delivering prevention-led action through partnerships, pilot programmes, and sector-wide collaboration to reduce knife harm and create safer everyday environments.
Follow us on social media for updates on our work, partnerships and progress.
Media Enquiries
For press interviews, media kit or speaking engagements, please contact our media team.
As featured on
Get Involved
Practical ways to support prevention-led action.
There are simple, practical steps anyone can take to help create safer everyday environments.
Take Action Locally
Use your voice locally. Start conversations with councils, Violence Reduction Units, schools, or community organisations about practical steps that reduce everyday risk and support prevention-led change.
Small actions at a local level can help shift what becomes normal - in homes, public settings and communities.
Speak to your local council or councillor about safer knife design, knife disposal points and prevention-led approaches in your area.
Speak to your local council or councillor about safer knife design, disposal points, or prevention-led approaches in your area.
Contact your local Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) to ask how everyday risk reduction is being considered in homes, education settings and public spaces.
Start a conversation in your workplace, school, university or organisation about safer kitchen knives and practical prevention measures.
Raise awareness within housing providers, youth services and community groups about simple changes that can reduce everyday risk.
Share the Let’s Be Blunt website and resources to help normalise safer choices and evidence-based prevention.
Support prevention-led change by fundraising for Let’s Be Blunt through workspaces, schools, colleges, universities, community groups or events.
Support Prevention
Support Practical Prevention
Every donation to Let’s Be Blunt supports evidence-informed, prevention-led action that reduces everyday risk before harm occurs. Your contribution helps us:
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Deliver safer knife replacement and disposal schemes in partnership with local authorities
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Work with schools, colleges, universities, councils and Violence Reduction Units to promote safer standards
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Develop and share clear, practical guidance informed by lived experience and evidence
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Support national conversations that shift norms around knife design, access and prevention
Donations allow us to respond quickly, collaborative with partners and scale practical approaches that are already making a real difference.
Let’s Be Blunt CIC is a Community Interest Company.
Spread The Word
You can help shift what becomes normal by sharing clear, evidence-informed information about prevention and safer everyday environments.
Changing norms often begins with simple conversations and shared knowledge.
Spreading the word can be as simple as:
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Sharing the Let’s Be Blunt website with friends, colleagues or local networks
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Posting or reposting updates from Let's Be Blunt on social media
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Starting a calm, informed conversation about safer knife design and everyday risk
Small actions help build wider understanding and wider understanding supports lasting change.
What Does Making the Pledge Mean?
By making the "Let's Be Blunt" pledge, you're making a commitment to practical actions that can help reduce knife harm and create safer homes and communities.
Replace Pointed Knives
Commit to replacing pointed kitchen knives in your home with safer, rounded-tip alternatives that are just as effective for cooking.
Educate Yourself & Others
Learn about responsible knife use and storage, and share this knowledge with friends and family to create a ripple effect of awareness.
Be Accountable
Take responsibility for all knives in your household. Know where they're stored, and who has access to them. Know how many you have and reduce this number if possible.
Contact
Whether you have a question, would like to explore partnership, support our work, or collaborate on prevention-led action, we would love to hear from you.