School leaders respond to proposed allergy safeguards

The government has announced new plans requiring all schools to stock life‑saving allergy pens. The government’s goal is for schools to also train all staff in allergy awareness, and introduce comprehensive allergy policies. This comes as a response to long‑running campaigns by families affected by fatal reactions, including the parents of Benedict Blythe.

The measures aim to reduce risk and keep children in school. The plans have come following a year in which allergy-related issues caused 500,000 lost school days. The statutory guidance is now out for consultation and due to take effect in September 2026. The government believe it will replace existing non-statutory advice and introduce clearer expectations around medical support. This includes Individual Healthcare Plans for conditions such as epilepsy and diabetes.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:

“This new guidance and advice is welcome as it provides more comprehensive information for schools to ensure they can continue to support all pupils in their education, including those with health conditions.

“Schools want to be as inclusive as possible whilst also ensuring they can continue to fulfil their safeguarding duty and keep every child as safe as possible whilst in their setting.

“However, while guidance and the right advice for schools is crucial, equally important is access to the right resources, including sufficient staffing capacity in the school to deliver their duties, and always ensuring access to specialist health support for pupils whose conditions require genuine expertise to keep them healthy and safe. Each of these things require funding to implement and schools cannot be expected to fund from their existing constrained budgets.

“There is also a major potential issue over clinical delegation, where a more complex health provision is required, because such specialist health support often cannot be safely delegated to school staff, even with training. We need urgent clarification over the legal status of health delegation in educational settings – all such children deserve expert-led health support in order to keep them safe and able to enjoy the full educational experience.

“Expecting schools to stock “spare” adrenaline auto-injectors for use in emergency situations appears a sensible step, as is training staff to use them effectively.

“However, the government need to be confident that there are sufficient stocks maintained across the country to ensure each setting can keep a sufficient share of adrenaline auto-injectors.

“In addition to their safe storage and ease of access, schools will need processes for ensuring adrenaline auto-injectors are discarded safely and reordered when they expire, so this needs to be carefully managed by central government. If schools are ever in the situation where they cannot access adrenaline auto-injectors due to limited stock availability, it cannot be left to schools to source other suppliers – government must do so and ensure only legitimate suppliers provide such resources to educational settings.”

The government’s proposals mark a significant step towards improving safety and confidence for children with allergies and other medical conditions in school. By moving from optional advice to statutory requirements, the plans signal a commitment to preventing avoidable harm and supporting families who have long called for stronger protections.

However, as school leaders highlight, the effectiveness of these measures will depend on whether schools receive the staffing, specialist health input and secure supply of medical equipment needed to implement them safely and consistently. Without the right resources, responsibility risks shifting onto already stretched school staff, particularly in cases requiring clinical expertise.