Keystone Insights Blog
Expert advice and strategies for academic success and personal growth.
Benedict’s Law: Is Your School Operationally Ready for September 2026?
Most schools will have reviewed or updated their allergy policy before September. The harder job is making sure it works across the whole school day.
Staff need to recognise anaphylaxis, know where medication is kept and be confident about what to do. That must remain true at lunchtime, during clubs and when the usual member of staff is absent.
Staff need to recognise anaphylaxis, know where medication is kept and be confident about what to do. That must remain true at lunchtime, during clubs and when the usual member of staff is absent.
Benedict's Law introduces new statutory allergy safety requirements for schools in England from 1 September 2026. A policy will only help if staff training, healthcare plans and emergency arrangements support it.
What is Benedict's Law?
Benedict's Law is the name commonly used for the allergy safety duties introduced through section 34 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. The Department for Education published statutory guidance on allergy safety in schools in July 2026.
The duties apply to local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained special schools and pupil referral units, as well as academies, free schools and alternative provision academies. Maintained nursery schools and 16-to-19 academies are not currently included.
Schools within scope must:
The guidance expects schools to provide regular allergy awareness training, stock spare adrenaline auto-injectors and appoint a named senior leader to oversee allergy safety. The Government intends to make these separate statutory duties through further regulations.
The duties apply to local-authority-maintained schools, including maintained special schools and pupil referral units, as well as academies, free schools and alternative provision academies. Maintained nursery schools and 16-to-19 academies are not currently included.
Schools within scope must:
- have a dedicated allergy safety policy;
- publish it on the school website;
- review it at least annually;
- bring it to the attention of staff, pupils and parents at least annually; and
- have regard to the statutory guidance.
The guidance expects schools to provide regular allergy awareness training, stock spare adrenaline auto-injectors and appoint a named senior leader to oversee allergy safety. The Government intends to make these separate statutory duties through further regulations.
Schools should not wait for the further regulations before acting. The statutory guidance applies from 1 September, and the practical arrangements need to be ready by then.
Why Benedict's case matters
Benedict Blythe was five years old when he died from food-induced anaphylaxis at school in December 2021.
Benedict had known allergies and an allergy management plan. The inquest concluded that he was accidentally exposed to cow's milk protein. He vomited twice before collapsing, and his mother explained that vomiting was normally the first sign of one of his allergic reactions.Anaphylaxis does not always begin with obvious swelling or difficulty breathing. Vomiting, abdominal pain or a sudden behaviour change can also be signs of an allergic reaction.
Benedict's case shows why a healthcare plan cannot simply sit in a folder or with one member of staff. The people around the pupil need to know the symptoms recorded in it and be ready to act.
How common are allergies in schools?
Figures cited in Parliament from the Benedict Blythe Foundation's REACT report estimate that around 680,000 pupils in England have allergies, approximately one or two in every classroom.
The DfE guidance states that around one in five children and young people with an allergy experience their first allergic reaction in an education setting. Nineteen children died from anaphylaxis between April 2019 and March 2023. All those who died and had a known allergy were also diagnosed with asthma.The REACT research covered 2,198 schools in England. It found that around one-third had no clear allergy policy, half did not hold potentially life-saving medication, and 70% did not have all the recommended safeguards in place.
Schools cannot plan only for pupils with a known diagnosis. A serious reaction may involve someone who has no healthcare plan or prescribed medication.
What do schools need to have in place?
The DfE template is a useful starting point. Each school still needs to work through how its arrangements will operate during lessons, lunch, clubs, trips and staff absence.
1. Be clear about who is responsible
The guidance says a named senior leader should be responsible for allergy safety, including oversight of the policy, training, healthcare plans, medication, incident reporting and communication with families.
Within a multi-academy trust, leaders should decide what is managed centrally and what remains each school's responsibility. A trust-wide policy can provide consistency, but individual arrangements still need to reflect each school's pupils, buildings, catering, staffing and activities.
Trusts should be clear about who is accountable at trust level, who is responsible in each school, who checks that arrangements work and what evidence the board will receive.
2. Make sure the policy reflects school life
The policy should explain how the school identifies allergies, reduces exposure, responds to emergencies and supports pupils' participation. It should cover the places where risk arises, including meals, packed lunches, classroom cooking, celebrations, clubs, trips, sports fixtures and external venues.
It should account for supply staff, agency workers, volunteers and external providers. If the policy does not cover these situations, staff will have to decide what to do when the risk arises.
Catering controls matter too. Leaders need assurance that allergen information is accurate, cross-contamination is managed and changes to ingredients or menus are communicated. The DfE recommends an "allergy-aware" rather than a "nut-free" approach because a nut-free label can create false reassurance and does not address other allergens.
The policy should cover safe inclusion in meals, trips and activities, as well as the prevention of allergy-related bullying.
3. Train the people who need to respond
Staff should receive allergy awareness training regularly and at least annually. This includes permanent and temporary staff, supply teachers, agency and peripatetic workers, regular volunteers, catering teams and people supervising breakfast or after-school clubs. First aid training alone is not enough.
Staff need to recognise common symptoms, find pupil-specific information and medication, use an adrenaline auto-injector, know when to call 999 and report incidents or near misses.
New starters and last-minute cover staff need to be briefed before they are responsible for pupils.
Boards should look at who has not completed the training, not only the overall percentage. A 10% gap matters if it includes lunchtime supervisors or the after-school team.
4. Keep healthcare plans current and accessible
A pupil whose allergy requires specific support should have an Individual Healthcare Plan. It should record their allergens, how a reaction may present, what staff should do, where medication is kept and the arrangements for meals, trips and activities.
Plans should be developed with pupils and parents, taking account of clinical advice where available. They should be reviewed at least annually and updated when circumstances change.
Schools should check that lunchtime staff can access the plan, trip leaders have the information they need off site and replacement staff know what to do.
5. Test the emergency arrangements
The DfE expects schools to stock spare adrenaline auto-injectors in the appropriate dosages. These do not replace devices prescribed to individual pupils. Spares should be stored in pairs so a second dose is available if needed. In a life-threatening emergency, prior consent is not required before a spare device is used.
Adrenaline should be administered without delay, so devices must be readily accessible and not locked away.
Schools should know which devices and dosages they hold, where they are kept, who checks expiry dates and how used or expired devices are replaced.
They should test whether the correct device can reach the dining hall, playground and furthest classroom within five minutes. Run the same check for trips, sports fixtures and wraparound provision.
Learning from incidents and near misses
The policy should explain how incidents and near misses will be recorded, investigated and reported to parents and the governing body.
If a pupil is given the wrong meal but notices before eating it, no harm may be done, but one of the school's controls still failed.
Boards should ask what happened, what caused it, whether it could happen again and what has changed as a result.
No recorded incidents could mean the controls are excellent. It could just as easily mean staff are not reporting them.
What to do before and after 1 September
Before pupils return
Schools and trusts should:
Staff training and pupil-specific briefings should be completed, with arrangements in place for new starters, supply staff and external teams.
Medication locations, expiry checks and replacement responsibilities should also be confirmed.
During the first weeks of term
Schools should:
By the end of the first half-term
The governing body or trust board should receive assurance on:
Schools and trusts should:
- appoint the accountable leader
- complete a gap assessment
- publish the allergy safety policy
- review healthcare plans and medication records
- order suitable spare devices
- agree responsibilities with catering and other providers.
Staff training and pupil-specific briefings should be completed, with arrangements in place for new starters, supply staff and external teams.
Medication locations, expiry checks and replacement responsibilities should also be confirmed.
During the first weeks of term
Schools should:
- test whether medication can be reached within five minutes
- run a practical emergency exercise
- check lunchtime and wraparound arrangements
- confirm that allergy arrangements work during trips and visits.
By the end of the first half-term
The governing body or trust board should receive assurance on:
- policy ownership
- outstanding training gaps
- healthcare plans
- prescribed and spare medication
- catering controls
- incidents and near misses
- any outstanding actions.
Checking readiness before September
The policy duty begins on 1 September. By then, leaders should be able to evidence that these arrangements work.
A policy, training record and box of spare injectors are of little use if staff cannot find the right information and act within minutes.
Keystone can independently check whether the arrangements described in the policy are working across the school day, and whether leaders and trustees have the evidence they need. We can help trusts include allergy safety within their risk-based internal scrutiny and assurance programmes. Specialist clinical or allergy training should be delivered by an appropriately qualified provider. If an independent check before September would be useful, speak to Keystone about reviewing your arrangements.
About the author
