Secondary School Allergy Guidance
Creating Safe, Inclusive Environments for Students with Allergies
Supporting pupils with serious allergies is a statutory requirement for UK secondary schools. This page equips you with expert guidance, best practices, and practical tools to build a whole-school allergy-aware culture.
With around 680,000 children in England living with allergies—and 1 in 5 fatal food-anaphylaxis cases occurring in school—every setting must be prepared. Schools have a legal duty under the Children and Families Act 2014 and DfE guidance to support pupils with medical conditions. That means clear policies, trained staff, and emergency planning, including spare AAIs. With 1 in 3 children with food allergies experiencing bullying, awareness and inclusion are just as important as safety.
Statutory Duty: Schools must comply with the Children and Families Act 2014 and DfE’s “Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions” guidance
Emergency Preparedness: Secondary students should carry their own AAIs; scenarios where spare devices are needed are detailed in DfE and MHRA guidelines
Preventing Bullying: Approximately 1 in 3 children with food allergies experience bullying. Our school assembly and awareness materials tackle this head-on
680,000 school children in England have allergies
20% of fatal food-anaphylaxis cases in children occur in school
Our Safer Schools Programme supports schools with simple, effective steps to manage allergy risk and meet safeguarding responsibilities. It includes:
Use our editable Risk Assessment Template, available through the Safer Schools Programme, to complete individual assessments for every pupil with allergies. These should be reviewed annually—ensuring the new class teacher is involved—and linked to your existing safeguarding policy. Instead of adopting a “nut-free” approach, consider creating designated safe zones where needed.
Make sure your school has a clear, regularly reviewed allergy policy—ideally based on our Model Policy Template. It should cover staff training, access to emergency medication including spare AAIs, inclusion during trips, lessons and lunchtimes and communication with families.
This Whole School Allergy Management Risk Assessment provides a comprehensive framework to help schools create a safer environment for pupils with serious allergies. It outlines practical measures across key areas—including medication access, staff training, food safety, curriculum planning, school events, and trips—ensuring risk is assessed and mitigated. With clear guidance and templates, it supports schools in embedding allergy awareness into everyday practice and safeguarding policies, promoting inclusion and preventing life-threatening allergic reactions.
The Best Practice Guide for Schools is designed to help you keep children safe, reduce anxiety and build a school culture where every pupil can thrive.
This guidance supports schools in balancing the benefits of therapy dogs with the needs of pupils who have allergies. It provides practical steps to reduce the risks of allergic reactions when dogs are present in school settings.
The guide helps schools, nurseries and event organisers create safe, inclusive environments for children with food allergies during events and activities.
Unlike other allergy training, Anaphylaxis UK is uniquely placed to provide regularly updated the AllergyWise® courses and content to make sure that you receive the most up-to -date support.
These are our latest and most comprehensive courses.
This course for all school staff covers common causes of allergic reactions, symptoms of anaphylaxis, how to use adrenaline auto-injectors (EpiPen® and Jext®), and how to manage pupils with allergies in school, including responsibilities, risk assessment, Allergy Action Plans, allergy bullying, storage of adrenaline auto-injectors and practical scenarios.
All schools have a statutory duty to support pupils with medical conditions, including allergies. The government’s guidance, Supporting Pupils at School with Medical Conditions (2017), sets out six key responsibilities that every school must follow.
Below is a summary of the essential steps schools should take to meet their duties and keep children with serious allergies safe and included:
Ensure your school has a clear allergy policy, aligned with statutory guidance. This should be regularly reviewed and shared with all staff.
Each pupil with an allergy must have a personalised Allergy Action Plan and either an Individual Healthcare Plan or Individual Risk Assessment. These documents should be easy to access and known to relevant staff.
Provide annual training for all staff on allergy management and anaphylaxis, including new joiners during the school year. Training must cover day-to-day care and how to respond in an emergency.
Pupils with allergies must be able to fully take part in school life. Plan proactively so that they can safely join in with lessons, activities, and trips.
While not a legal requirement, it is strongly recommended that schools hold spare AAIs. These should be stored in an unlocked, central location for quick access during emergencies.
Any allergic reaction or episode of anaphylaxis should be recorded and reported. Use these incidents to review your policy, risk assessments, and practices.
Maintain regular contact with parents and carers. Ongoing communication helps ensure the right support is in place and builds trust between school and home.
Schools must adhere to Supporting Pupils with medical conditions at school. This document details the responsibilities of the different stakeholders involved in a school and states that sufficient staff must have received suitable training before supporting children with medical conditions
Around 1 in 3 children with food allergies in the UK report being bullied because of their condition. This is unacceptable—and dangerous.
Food allergy bullying isn’t just unkind; it can pose serious physical and emotional risks. That’s why schools must include specific guidance on allergy-related bullying within their broader anti-bullying and safeguarding policies.
Allergy bullying should be treated with the same seriousness as any other form of harassment. Schools have a responsibility—under the Department for Education’s statutory safeguarding guidance—to create an environment where all pupils are protected from harm.
We encourage schools to make use of support available from trusted organisations, including Childline, NSPCC, and the Anti-Bullying Alliance.
Establish clear procedures for preventing and responding to allergy-related bullying.
Educate staff, pupils, and families about the serious nature of food allergies and the impact of bullying.
Promote a culture of empathy and respect, so all children feel safe, supported, and included.
Use assemblies and awareness campaigns, such as our Allergy Awareness Assembly Presentation, to increase understanding and tackle stigma.
Key guidance on emergency adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs) and the Department for Education’s legal expectations around allergy management in schools.
Every school has a duty to safeguard pupils at risk of serious allergies. From 1 October 2017, UK legislation allows schools to purchase and hold spare adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs) without a prescription, for emergency use in pupils at risk of anaphylaxis. This page provides practical guidance to help you implement this safely and effectively.
The Allergy Guidance for Schools page provides clear information for schools and caterers on how to meet their legal responsibilities in managing food allergies. It outlines key requirements under food safety law and equality legislation, helping schools support pupils with allergies in a safe, inclusive way.
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Each term, we’ll send you a carefully curated update packed with practical tools, expert guidance, and real-life examples to help your school or setting confidently support children and young people with allergies. Whether you’re updating your policy, planning a trip or training your team, our newsletter has you covered.
These template letters are designed to help schools communicate with parents and carers about the presence of a pupil with serious allergies. They explain the importance of creating a safe and inclusive environment by encouraging allergy awareness, outlining practical steps for minimising risk (such as handwashing and not sharing food), and promoting empathy and understanding among the wider school community. The letters also direct families to additional support and information from Anaphylaxis UK.
This letter welcomes new Reception parents and explains how they can help keep a classmate with serious allergies safe. It encourages a compassionate, whole-class approach, with simple steps families can take to reduce allergy risks and promote inclusion.
This letter informs parents about a pupil in their child’s class who has serious allergies and may be at risk of anaphylaxis. It outlines how families can support the school in maintaining a safe environment by following allergy-aware practices and fostering understanding.
We have guidance for all stages of a student’s educational journey that is based on the relevant sector legislation.
Anyone prescribed adrenaline must have immediate access to two of their own prescribed adrenaline auto-injectors.
Regulation 238 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 allows for adrenaline to be administered by anyone for the purpose of saving a life in an emergency.
Milk allergy can cause serious allergic reactions (anaphylaxis). Special care and vigilance are needed. Even a splash of milk or yogurt may cause a skin reaction in a child with milk allergy. Spillages need to be wiped thoroughly and hands washed. If a child with a milk allergy has a milk substitute (such as a soya drink) there needs to be a robust system for ensuring that the child is not given the wrong drink by mistake. For further information about cow’s milk allergy, read our factsheet.
From 2017, all schools and local authority maintained nurseries in the UK can purchase spare adrenaline auto-injectors for emergency use. Spare adrenaline auto-injectors are primarily for pupils known to be at risk of anaphylaxis and for who both medical authorisation and written parental consent for use of the spare auto-injector has been provided. The school’s spare auto-injector can be administered to a pupil whose own prescribed device cannot be administered correctly without delay.
A schools’ spare adrenaline auto-injector can also be used for any pupils or other person not known by the school to be at risk of anaphylaxis in an emergency. Written permission is not required in these exceptional circumstances where the reaction could not have been foreseen.
Further information on the use of spare adrenaline auto-injectors can be found in this Clarification of adrenaline autoinjector guidance for schools
Commercially produced playdough can contain allergens, such as wheat. Find out the ingredients from the manufacturer. You can make your own play dough using cornflour, baking soda, water, bottled vegetable oil and food colouring. Make sure you don’t have a child who reacts to any of these ingredients.
Some cosmetics contain food ingredients, for example, some creams contain nut oils. It’s difficult to determine the level of risk posed by cosmetic products containing food ingredients, however, unless the allergic child accidentally ingests the cream it’s likely to be very low. Anaphylaxis from skin contact with the product alone is extremely unlikely, however, contact reactions such as a skin rash/hives could occur. Nut oils are made from the fats of the nut, so likely have very little amounts of nut protein in, reducing the risks further as the proteins cause allergic reactions.
Further information about food ingredients in cosmetics can be found in our factsheet.
Kissing can be risky if someone eats a food that the other person is allergic to. Allergens can remain in saliva for several hours – anywhere between 2 and 24 hours, and even brushing teeth may not get rid of them effectively. If, for example, a child eats something then kisses a child allergic to that food on the cheek, this is unlikely to cause anaphylaxis, but a contact reaction such as a skin rash/hives could occur.
Generally speaking, watching chicks hatch in an incubator poses no risk to children with egg allergy, but all children should be encouraged to wash their hands after touching the incubation box in case there is any residual egg content on it. There is a little more risk when it comes to children handling the chicks. Speak with the parent/carer about the activity – they may want to ask their child’s allergy specialist, who is best placed to answer a question about an individual child and their sensitivity.
