Legal alert for schools: Benedict’s Law - Proposed legislation for management of allergies in schools

This proposed legislation seeks to strengthen protections for children with allergies in educational settings. If enacted, it would place statutory requirements on schools to:

• Hold a supply of spare adrenaline auto-injector pens on site (aka EpiPens);

• Ensure staff are trained in allergy awareness and emergency response; and

• Maintain school allergy policies.

Although the Bill is still in its early stages, it has already received widespread support from the public, medical professionals, charities and education unions.

Under current legislation, schools already have a duty to support pupils with medical conditions, as set out in Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014, as well as duties under Health and Safety legislation. To meet your duties and uphold best practice, we strongly encourage schools to: 

• Develop and implement clear allergy management policies and procedures to ensure medical diet requests are handled appropriately and consistently;

• Ensure catering and food-handling staff receive appropriate allergy training. Even when the service is sub-contracted you should have assurance appropriate training is being undertaken and the site team are competent in safe allergen management;

• Maintain accurate allergy registers and records of prescribed medication to be administered in the event of an allergic reaction, which are easily accessible to staff;

• Ensure staff are appropriately trained in emergency first aid;

• Implement clear allergy management plans, including how information is provided to emergency services who attend site to identify the medical needs of pupils;

• Risk assess medical diet requests, incorporating the assessment into a broader allergen management framework. Consider if the school can deliver the request;

• Show accurate allergen ingredients information for food served in an easy to understood format for children to review;

• Conduct personal anaphylaxis risk assessments where required; and

• Implement and regularly review individual healthcare plans for severe allergies in consultation with parents/guardians. 

If you require any further advice or assistance regarding the management of allergies in education settings, including your management systems and risk assessment processes, please do not hesitate to contact the Eversheds Sutherland health and safety team: