Get ready for Benedict’s Law and new guidance
What the new legislation and statutory guidance mean for you
Get ready for Benedict’s Law and new allergy guidance for schools
Every school in England will be required to comply with new allergy safety legislation called Benedict’s Law. From September 2026 schools must follow new statutory guidance too.
Benedict’s Law and the new statutory guidance are linked:
Benedict’s Law places a legal duty on schools to have an allergy safety policy and other measures in place. Read our Benedict’s Law FAQs.
The statutory guidance on allergy safety (currently in draft form) explains how schools should comply with the law. Schools must implement the guidance from September 2026.
What are your responsibilities and how do you make sure your school is compliant?
We’re already working with hundreds of schools to get these key measures in place, so let us guide you through, step-by-step.
We’ve also built a School Allergy Safety Toolkit, so you have all the resources you need to get compliant, in one place.
Join a FREE webinar to find out more.
What’s changing
The government has published new draft guidance called Supporting children and young people with medical conditions and allergy. This will replace Managing Medical Conditions in Schools (2015).
The aim is to “transform allergy safety in schools”.
The Allergy Team, allergy charities and leading allergy clinicians have been asked to co-produce this guidance so it is practical and straightforward to implement, whilst ensuring the safety and inclusion of pupils with allergies.
How can you start preparing for September?
The draft guidance requires schools to have a number of allergy safety measures in place. These are things you can do now to be compliant by September:
Appoint and train a Designated Allergy Lead
We’re the only organisation offering Designated Allergy Lead training. Enrol your allergy lead so they have all the tools to implement the new guidance and are equipped to support colleagues and pupils with confidence.
Arrange allergy training for all staff
Our CPD-accredited whole-school training is considered the gold-standard for schools. It’s endorsed by Allergy UK and has been approved by top allergy clinicians. The video-based e-learning includes: understanding allergy, how to reduce risk for pupils with allergies, supporting inclusion, and how to respond in an allergy emergency (including how to use adrenaline devices). Enrol all your staff and add new joiners whenever you like. We’ll send you progress reports to help you keep track of staff training.
Write your school's allergy policy
Our free allergy policy template is easy to adapt to any setting. It helps set out role responsibilities, how your school reduces risk, and expectations around the management of allergy medication, school trips and sports fixtures. Created in collaboration with allergy clinicians, families and educators.
Buy spare adrenaline pens
The guidance is that schools are expected to hold spare adrenaline pens (in addition to those prescribed to individuals). These can be bought from a pharmacy without prescription. To save you shopping around, we have arranged for schools to buy spare adrenaline pens at cost-price + VAT from Simple Pharmacy Online using a special code.
Contact parents and carers and start creating Individual Healthcare Plans for pupils with allergies
Find out what should be in an IHP for students with allergies at one of our free webinars.
Join the Schools Allergy Register and we'll work with you to earn our trust mark
Join the hundreds of schools signed up to join the Schools Allergy Register. You’ll get support and training for your whole-school so everyone understands allergy, how to reduce risk and how to respond in an emergency. Includes whole-school training, a place on our Designated Allergy Lead training, access to expert Q&As and ongoing support from our specialist team. Plus, when you’re meeting best practice, you’ll earn our trust mark.
Sign up to our newsletter for updates on the new guidance as we get them
We are co-producing this new guidance and will share new information with you as soon as it’s made public. Sign up to our newsletter for updates.