Allergy safety at school

Allergies are something a lot of us have experience of, in fact one in three people in the UK now live with allergic disease. Hospital admissions for allergic reactions have risen by over 160% in the past 20 years, and 50% of children are now affected by at least one allergic condition.

Given that 18% of food allergy reactions and 25% of first-time anaphylactic reactions occur at school, we need to make sure our schools have the training and resource to manage allergies and reactions.

I'm calling for 3 major changes in how we support schools to keep children with allergies safe:

1. An allergy policy in every school. This means a clear, up to date policy, created in consultation with parents, healthcare professionals and pupils laying out the safeguarding standards.

2. Training for school staff, that covers allergy awareness, managing allergies in the school setting, and what to do in an emergency.

3. Spare medication in every school. Accessible adrenaline auto-injectors will close a critical safety gap and make sure that life saving medication can be administered as quickly as possible.

In July 2025, I led a debate in parliament on safeguarding children with allergies in schools, and called on the government to take action on these 3 measures:

Watch the debate

I am introducing the Schools (Allergy Safety) Bill on the 9th of July 2025 to get these changes into law. Add your name to the parliamentary petition calling for it to be added to the statute book:

Sign the petition