Be ready for the Allergy Safety guidance changes this September!
Book your anaphylaxis training with us and ensure your school has spare EpiPens available.
Today, a historic step has been taken to protect children with allergies in schools. The Department for Education will publish new mandatory statutory guidance on allergy safety from September 2026, requiring schools to have robust allergy policies, spare emergency adrenaline auto-injectors, and trained staff. These measures could reduce risk, prevent tragedies and hospitalisations, and give allergy families greater peace of mind.
Schools will be expected to follow this guidance. In practice, this means real change in how schools protect children with allergies, helping to make schools safer every day.
Five-year-old Benedict Blythe, tragically passed away in 2021 after being mistakenly given milk at school, to which he had a known allergy. His legacy is a powerful reminder of why allergy safety in schools matters.
The guidance will be drafted in consultation with the Benedict Blythe Foundation, and members of the National Allergy Strategy Group.
This guidance will:-
Benedict Blythe received adrenaline from an auto-injector pen but unfortunately it was administered too late. The message from clinicians is clear, if you suspect it COULD be an allergic reaction, don’t delay – use an allergy pen as soon as possible.
No harm will come if the pen is given when it isn’t an allergic reaction – but the consequences of delaying can be harmful, or fatal. Even if a child does not have their own EpiPen, it is advised the school keeps spares for any children ‘at risk’. For more information on this visit government guidance.
In 2017, the law was changed: the Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017 now allows schools to obtain, without a prescription, “spare” AAI devices for use in emergencies, if they so wish. “Spare” AAIs are in addition to any AAI devices a pupil might be prescribed and bring to school. The “spare” AAI(s) can be used if the pupil’s own prescribed AAI(s) are not immediately available (for example, because they are broken, out-of-date, have misfired or been wrongly administered).
“Spare” AAI devices can be used in any pupil known to be at risk of anaphylaxis, so long as the school have medical approval for the “spare” AAI to be used in a specific pupil, and the child’s parent/guardian has provided written authorisation.
Not all children with food allergies and at risk of anaphylaxis are prescribed AAIs. These children can be given a spare AAI in an emergency, so long as: the school has a care plan confirming that the child is at risk of anaphylaxis, a healthcare professional has authorised use of a spare AAI in an emergency in that child and/or the child’s parent/guardian has provided consent for a spare AAI to be administered.
This key message from The Allergy Team UK is – if in doubt, don’t delay. It may just save someone’s life.
Access to spare adrenaline pens shouldn’t be complicated or costly, and yet The Allergy Team hear of schools struggling to access them time and time again.
Either the pens are too expensive (the price varies hugely from pharmacy to pharmacy, or other distributors), the expiry dates are too short, or the local chemist doesn’t know about the spare pens for school scheme.
So they’ve done something about it by working with Simple Online Pharmacy to give every UK school access to cost-price EpiPens and Jext pens, along with clear, step-by-step guidance to make ordering simple.
Using their special code, schools can now get:
✅ Cost-price pens (+VAT)
✅ Expiry dates of at least a year (or get notified before ordering)
✅ Simple, trusted process for ordering
Whether you (or your school if you are a parent/carer) have been trying to buy spare pens for months or didn’t know you could, you now have a clear route forward.
To find out more, visit The Allergy Team website.
Anaphylaxis and Asthma, Awareness for a safe learning environment (2hrs)
At Child Matters we offer a 2 hour course that provides Asthma and Anaphylaxis awareness for schools and any setting managing the risk of an anaphylaxis emergency. It is designed to provide confidence to all school staff if called upon to deal with a medical emergency involving Asthma and Anaphylaxis in their school environment.
Anaphylaxis, Asthma & Allergy Awareness conditions are taught together because they are closely related and frequently coexist.
Our fun and engaging training programmes are delivered by highly experienced Registered Nurses who combine real-life experience with evidence-based practice.
Your staff will receive a downloadable personalised certificate of attendance.
Group Booking Max. 20 persons
Cost £320 +vat
Staff who have completed the Paediatric First Aid Course will have covered both these topics, this awareness course will have more content and will cover any latest updates.
