Allergy safety in schools

This statutory guidance outlines what schools must do to support pupils with allergies. It includes information and examples that schools can use to:

• create and publish an allergy safety policy
• put allergy safety training in place for all staff
• identify the children and young people who require Individual Healthcare Plans (IHPs) to manage their allergy, and to produce them
• record and learn lessons from serious incidents and near misses

This statutory guidance is for:

• governing bodies of local-authority-maintained schools, including special schools (excluding local-authority-maintained nursery schools)
• management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs)
• proprietors of academies, including free schools and alternative provision academies (excluding 16 to 19 academies)

While not currently a statutory requirement for independent schools (including independent special schools) and non-local-authority-maintained special schools, we intend to introduce allergy safety requirements through the relevant regulatory standards for these schools.

It may be useful for:

• early years settings
• further education (FE) colleges and other post-16 institutions
• independent schools (including independent special schools)
• non-local-authority-maintained special schools

The templates give example text that schools can use to:

• fulfil their statutory duty to have an allergy safety policy
• create IHPs for children and young people with allergies
• manage record keeping and training around the use of adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs) in school

It may also be helpful to refer to the related statutory guidance on supporting pupils with medical conditions at school.