Statutory guidance for English schools
Benedict's Law is named after Benedict Blythe, a five-year-old who died after an allergic reaction to food at school. It sets out, in practical terms, what a school needs to have in place so that doesn't happen again. Here's what it asks for, and where each requirement lives in AllergyHub.
A school should be able to answer five questions without hesitating: is there a written allergy policy that's actually been reviewed? Has every relevant member of staff — not just first-aiders — been trained? Does every pupil with a serious allergy have a healthcare plan and two in-date adrenaline injectors? Is there spare stock on site? And when something does happen, is it written down and learned from?
A published allergy policy naming a Designated Allergy Lead, plus a separate whole-school risk assessment covering catering, celebrations, trips and PE — not a single document from three years ago quietly out of date.
In AllergyHub: the Policy page tracks the named lead, both documents, both review dates, and a practical-steps checklist. Published policies get a public page any parent or inspector can view without logging in.
Everyone who might be with a child at the moment it matters — lunchtime supervisors, cover teachers, coach drivers — needs allergy awareness training, kept current.
In AllergyHub: a training log with trainer, certificate, and an explicit expiry date per person, plus two independently configurable reminder thresholds so nobody's certificate lapses unnoticed.
Every pupil with a serious allergy needs an IHP reviewed at least annually, and two AAIs that are actually in date — not one expired one at the back of a drawer.
In AllergyHub: IHP review dates are tracked per child and flagged when overdue. Every allergy record holds two separate AAI expiry dates, and the compliance dashboard flags any pupil short of two in-date pens.
Beyond what an individual child carries, a school should hold its own spare stock for genuine emergencies.
In AllergyHub: a simple stock log by brand, quantity and location, with expiry flagged before it becomes a problem.
Near misses matter as much as serious incidents — both are how a school actually learns, and both are what a trust or governor should be able to see evidence of.
In AllergyHub: every incident is logged with severity, action taken, and a lessons-learnt review. Parents see everything logged about their own child. A trust sees serious incidents and near misses across every school it oversees — aggregate compliance, not individual pupil records.
Register free and the compliance dashboard tells you exactly which of the five you're missing — today, not at the next inspection.