That this House has considered the matter of safeguarding children with allergies at school.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. First, I would like to declare that I am an officer for the all-party parliamentary group on allergy. To be clear, I am not the first person to host a Westminster Hall debate or an Adjournment debate on the topic; Members who have been in this place for a much longer time than me, most notably the hon. Members for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) have long called for improvements to allergy safety in schools, and I pay tribute to them.
Many of us have experience of allergies: one in three people in the UK now live with allergic disease. In fact, this afternoon my speech will be tempered by the fact that my own allergies have taken control this morning, so I apologise for the slightly laboured delivery. I have my own personal experience, too; my son suffered a severe allergic reaction to an over-the-counter medication. The terrifying car journey to the hospital, watching his whole body turn blotchy red and not knowing what was wrong, is a fear that no parent should have to endure. The months that followed were filled with anxiety about what else he might be allergic to, and constant worry about receiving a call from nursery with bad news.
I have experienced this on a small scale, compared with many parents who live with the fear every day. I will not be commenting on individual cases, for legal reasons and because of ongoing legal proceedings, but I want to make clear that any child who has been lost in our schools because of an allergic reaction is one too many. 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. Every year, approximately 43,000 new cases of child allergy require care. The number of children diagnosed with allergic rhinitis and eczema has tripled in 30 years, with 3.9 million currently affected. Studies show now that incidents of food allergies in England nearly doubled between 2008 and 2018, with a prevalence of 4% among pre-school children.
Children spend at least 20% of their waking hours in school, and food allergies affect around two children in every classroom. It should come as no surprise that 18% of food allergy reactions and 25% of first-time anaphylactic reactions occur in the school environment. Given the amount of time spent at school and the proportion of children affected, it is vital that children and their parents feel that school is a safe place and prepared to deal with allergic reactions, but sadly that is often not the case.
Parents want to know that their children can go to school safely, but they might equally have a reaction when they are not at school; 70% of parents of children with allergies report that they have experienced an absence because of an allergy. Does my hon. Friend agree that the vast number of difficulties faced by children with allergies and their parents merits the creation of a cross-departmental allergy tsar who could advise the Government on all the ways that allergies affect the sufferer?
My hon. Friend is a little ahead of the rest of my speech, but I completely agree, and I will give reasons for that. An allergy tsar who can cross Departments —Health, Education and others—could have a huge impact on how we deal with children with allergies.
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. I do not usually speak much about my family in the Chamber, but it is interesting that my hon. Friend spoke about his personal experience with his son. I phoned my nephew yesterday—it was his first day at primary school and he had his taster day—to show him Big Ben, which was going off at the time. When I did, he had hugely swollen eyes; he had had an allergic reaction at school, which had also been happening at nursery. He has an egg allergy. The nursery updated parents daily to say what they were having for lunch—I do not know whether my hon. Friend has seen these apps—and my brother phoned me one day to tell me that he had been told that my nephew had had quiche. Although it is important that we make sure we have these provisions in school settings, does my hon. Friend agree that we should make sure they are also there in early years settings?
I completely agree. Those family apps are a daily part of my life, as I see what my son is eating. I still have a little jittery feeling every time I see what food is going to him and whether he will have a reaction.
Allergy provisions in schools are unfortunately inconsistent, leaving children vulnerable and families sometimes fearful. There is no comprehensive national framework to safeguard children with allergies effectively. Approximately 70% of UK schools do not have basic protections in place, which has led some families to resort to home education, denying their children the opportunity to learn alongside their peers. One in three schools has no allergy policy at all, and many that do simply say “no nuts”. Half of schools do not have spare adrenalin auto-injector pens on site, and over 60% do not provide training to staff on how to manage allergies.
The impact on attendance is significant. Research by the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation found that 70% of parents reported that their allergic child had missed school because of their allergy. Reasons include illness and medical appointments and, crucially, anxiety about safety and bullying. Two thirds of parents believe allergies negatively affect their children’s educational attainment. Allergies should never be a barrier to education and success. The mental health impact is equally serious. Data show that 83% of people with food allergies say it significantly impacts their wellbeing. Many children face bullying and teasing related to their allergies, causing feelings of isolation, fear and anxiety. Around 32% of children surveyed have been bullied due to food allergies at least once.
Some school practices worsen the isolation. I have heard of children being made to sit alone at lunch or missing out on treats given to other children on special occasions. Many parents restrict their children’s activities because of safety concerns, and some consider removing their children from mainstream education altogether. Allergy UK’s research shows that 61% of children with food allergies avoid social situations to reduce risk.
I was diagnosed with an anaphylactic peanut allergy at the age of seven. Much of the coverage around allergies centres on the devastating occasions when anaphylaxis and avoidable reactions result in tragic deaths. For most allergy sufferers, today’s debate feels much closer to our daily life and is therefore incredibly poignant. The impact of allergic diseases on the lives of children goes far beyond severe and occasional reactions; it impacts every part of their lives.
I begin by endorsing the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore); I endorse much of the additional provision he has asked for. In my experience, having a food allergy has meant feeling different and isolated from my peers at school. I was often not able to be involved with school experiences or even rewards for getting my times tables or spelling right, if they were food-based.
I also experienced a high degree of anxiety from my parents when other parents continually sent their children in with peanut butter sandwiches despite repeated warnings, the result of which was always that I, as a seven-year-old, needed to restrict myself further to keep myself safe. Having to take huge precautions when going on school and residential trips, which required me to challenge some cooking staff—adults—who were asking me to eat food that I knew to be unsafe. In a school setting, where good behaviour is often associated with deference towards teachers and other adults, that is very difficult for a child to navigate. On one occasion, a member of the catering staff at an outdoor pursuit residential centre called me a pain in the proverbial—her language was not so polite—for having allergies and refusing to eat unsafe food that was put in front of me. I was 10.
As I got older, I became more resentful of my allergies, always having to carry a messenger bag with adrenalin auto-injectors when out with friends, not being able to eat at the fast food places and restaurants where my friends held birthday parties or went at the weekend, and never being able to sit with them for school dinners in the canteen. One thing that is often not discussed is that I, like many with allergies, know there are things I will never do and places I will never go, as their cuisine is unsuitable for my allergies and there is a lack of medical access while travelling.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, as ever, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) for securing this debate and for his advocacy and hard work to ensure that children with allergies are kept safe at school. He has outlined the work required to assist them in their education. I have close friends in my constituency who have experienced with their children what my hon. Friends the Members for Redditch and for Clwyd East (Becky Gittins) described, so I thank them for their advocacy.
I pay tribute to Allergy UK for its dedication in this area. In February, I visited its headquarters in Crayford in my constituency, in the deepest eastern part of south-east London. During my visit, I heard from an Allergy UK supporter who had benefited from its dietitian service for her young baby. I welcome Allergy UK’s campaign to introduce access to allergy dietitians through GP surgeries in each health region. I am pleased to be an Allergy UK champion, and I support it in its work to keep every person with an allergy across the UK safe.
Keeping children safe at school is vital. Allergy UK estimates that 40% of children have been diagnosed with an allergy, and that one in 12 young children suffer from a food allergy. As we are all aware, food allergies can be devastating and, in the worst cases, deadly. It is therefore crucial that we ensure that teachers and training staff have the correct training and allergen awareness. For the worst-case scenarios, it is crucial that every staff member knows how to provide life-saving care and administer life-saving medication.
We have all heard about and read heartbreaking stories of entirely avoidable deaths. I am sure that, with the correct training and equipment, many such situations could have ended entirely differently. I therefore welcome the ten-minute rule Bill that my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch will introduce next week, on 9 July, which would ensure that schools are required to maintain an allergy management policy, and would require allergy training for staff in schools. I believe those are vital measures to ensure that children are safeguarded and protected at school. If we implement those measures, parents will be able to send their children to school in the knowledge that their allergies will not hold them back from accessing a well-rounded and fulfilling education.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) on securing this debate on an issue that has such a wide-ranging impact and is very close to my heart. I know that he works incredibly hard to champion people with allergies and the challenges they face. As the newly-elected chair of the APPG on allergy, I thank him dearly for his efforts.
I have complex allergies that impact my everyday life. My first allergic reaction happened when I was two years old, when I took a bite out of a raw fish finger waiting to go in the oven. I scared the living daylights out of my mother, as my face and hands swelled up until it looked like, in her words, I had gone 10 rounds with Frank Bruno. I have lived with allergies all my life, as has my son, and have worked alongside many parents and children’s professionals in my 20 years of teaching. Navigating the world of allergies is difficult. The advice I have been given has been inconsistent and sometimes outright dangerous. There is simply not enough training or education for people to understand the issues and mitigate the harm.
Eating anywhere is difficult. Most businesses would rather lose my custom and exclude me with a blanket of “may contain” and “cannot guarantee” notices than provide the information needed to eat safely. I fully appreciate that, in a world where we have acceptable levels of contaminants in food, there will never be 100% certainty, but I have been asked to sign waivers for pizzas and referred to companies’ policies, where pubs, clubs or outlets have refused to share ingredients that would allow me to make an informed choice. I have been insulted, ignored, condescended and asked to show my auto-injectors to prove that I am not just being fussy.
I have difficulty navigating this world, and yet we expect children to do the same, without the same level of understanding or autonomy over their situation. The number of children with allergies has soared, with two children in every classroom diagnosed with allergies. Most of our schools do a brilliant job of trying to support and care for those children, but children’s allergies are routinely excluding and stigmatising them at school. They want to carry their own tray at lunchtime alongside their peers. They want to sit on the same tables with friends, not be segregated. They want to be able to eat puddings and take treats the teacher has brought in. The protections are simply not there to allow that to happen. School parties, discos, end-of-term treats and the dreaded cake day in schools present significant threats to children and exclude them from participation.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) on securing this important debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) is talking about cuts. As a parent of a child with multiple allergies, I used to get support from Leicestershire county council for nutritional services, but that has all gone. It was one of the first areas that local authorities cut. Does my hon. Friend agree that that reduction in support has made life for parents of children with allergies so much harder than it needs to be?
Absolutely. With my eldest son, we had Sure Start centres available, and I had access to support from health visiting teams. With my daughter, who has a less impactful allergy, there has been little support, and we are still waiting, at 12 years of age, for referrals to dietitians.
We need to ensure that children with allergies stay safe in education, and to do so, we need clarity of training, access to EpiPens at all times, and clear procedures to make sure they are accessible for an effective response. We need a planned response, a whole-school risk assessment, individual healthcare, and clear pathways to make sure that staff are not only aware of the children but confident and able to respond quickly and effectively, not just going to the Tupperware box in the back of the dusty office cupboard.
I have talked to school leaders, teachers, nurseries and, most importantly, students in my constituency, and they echo the need for clarity and consistency in training and access to emergency EpiPens. The Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017 allow schools to obtain auto-injectors for emergency use, but they are not required to, and this provision does not extend to early years.
Our early years settings are key to children’s development, providing new experiences and a place for exploring sensory development, and widening horizons and diets. Nurseries have cultures of trying new things, but they are also where many children have their first experience of allergens and allergic reactions. As we have heard today from first-hand experience, this can be quite terrifying for those involved. In these circumstances, no auto-injectors would be held by the setting, as they simply would not know that they needed to use them. A requirement to have auto-injectors as part of a standard first aid kit—with protocols and an anaphylaxis response team—would significantly reduce the risk of serious harm from those first reactions.
The group Spare Pens in Schools highlighted that most children, like mine, will have been accidentally exposed every two or three years. Pancake day with my child who is allergic to meat, wheat and eggs was, as I am sure hon. Members can imagine, a yearly trial. I would wait for the call at work to be asked if they needed to use the AAIs, which realistically would already be too late. A structured healthcare plan would not only reduce the incidence of accidental exposure, but provide a planned, effective response.
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I thank the hon. Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) for securing this debate and for his forthcoming introduction of the school allergy safety Bill to Parliament. As a parent, I understand the concerns when a child starts their school life. We hope that they settle well, are happy making friends and enjoy learning. The anxiety that comes when our children have an allergy, particularly a severe one, must be enormous. It is one that I cannot truly understand, not having experienced it, but I have been really moved by what I have heard today from Members who have.
There are 680,000 pupils in England with an allergy, so there are also many more anxious parents. The hon. Member said that he would not talk about specific cases, and I will also respect that. Sadly, there have been a number of tragic cases in the last few years, and our thoughts in this debate are surely with those families. It is important to recognise that the coroners’ reports in those cases have cited a lack of in-date adrenalin devices, inadequate training of staff and confusion about the process, with those delays ultimately resulting in deaths. It needs to be a given that parents can feel assured that their children’s school can deal with any allergy incidents, whether minor or life-threatening.
It is estimated that around two children in every classroom have an allergy of some kind. Food allergies, which can be life-threatening, are particularly concerning in young children, between 5% and 8% of whom are affected, compared with 1% or 2% of adults. Studies have shown that the incidence of food allergies nearly doubled between 2008 and 2018, and we can see from an increase of 161% in hospital admissions over the last two decades that the problem is getting worse. There has been some welcome progress on research into prevention, but we have to make sure that young people are safe in schools.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Redditch (Chris Bloore) on securing this important debate, which he opened by telling a frightening story about his own child. I am sorry that he is also suffering in a smaller way this afternoon, but we never would have known; he did a good job of making his case. We also heard good speeches from the hon. Members for Clwyd East (Becky Gittins), for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) and for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling), which included stories about their own frightening experiences and fears of social exclusion.
As other Members have done, I thank some of the groups that do great work on this subject, including the Benedict Blythe Foundation, the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, Anaphylaxis UK and Allergy UK. When I was the Minister for public health, I met some of the parents and others who had lost loved ones, and those who were working with these campaign groups. I was struck by not only the fear that people experience that something bad or terrible will happen, but that sense of people being excluded or missing out, or feeling that they cannot do things because they are not getting the information or protection they need. That is a hugely important part of the discussion.
I will touch on some of the things that the previous Government did, not to say that everything is fixed—of course it is not—but to talk about how we got to this point. One thing that made a big difference was the creation of Natasha’s law in 2019, which requires all prepackaged food products to display all the key 14 allergen ingredients in bold. We started to join up the discussion across Government—something Members have called for this afternoon—with the expert advisory group for allergy. There is potentially scope to go further, and a number of Members have talked about the argument for an allergy tsar. I am sympathetic to the idea of having, in some way, shape or form, better cross-Government join-up of policy; it is a sensible thing that we need.
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The lack of understanding can have tragic consequences. Eighty per cent of parents believe that their child’s allergies are not taken seriously at school, and such indifference can lead to delays in treatment and, heartbreakingly, to children not returning home from school.
Members from all parties have referenced the inconsistent and dangerous approach to allergy safety in schools. A brief look at Hansard reveals statements made by Ministers from all parties over the last 15 years about how an inconsistent approach to allergies causes dangers in our schools. To agree with the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford, who is not here today, the root cause of these issues is a lack of clarity in the Department for Education’s guidance, and a lack of accountability mechanisms to ensure that existing guidance is followed properly.
We must also remember that allergies are simply not a dietary issue. They are a medical issue requiring proper medical protocols and support. Yes, schools should lead on allergy policies, but freedom of information requests and research done by the Benedict Blythe Foundation show that not enough of them are doing so. We cannot blame schools for those failures. They must be provided with the right leadership, resources and support to implement consistent allergy safety measures. Teachers and staff want to protect children, but cannot do so without proper training and guidance.
Fifty per cent of parents believe that staff and teachers should have more training on allergies. This training should include allergy awareness management and emergency response training, including administration of adrenalin auto-injectors. It must be consistent, evidence-based and delivered in collaboration with medical professionals. Schools are under-resourced and need proper funding. A recent NASUWT survey found that 67% of school staff had not received allergy awareness training because of funding issues.
Alongside training, every school should have a specific allergy policy that includes an anaphylaxis plan. This ensures everyone knows their role in allergy safety, and families can be assured that a safe environment has been created. Safeguarding guidance should be strengthened to specifically reference children with allergies. Each child with a diagnosed allergy should have an individual healthcare plan developed with parents, schools and healthcare professionals, providing clear guidance on risk management and emergency procedures. All schools should record and report allergic reactions and near misses. A centralised database would allow better tracking of trends, identification of risks and improvements in policy.
Every school should be funded to hold in-date spare adrenalin auto-injectors, with staff trained in their use. Those devices should be as commonplace and accessible as defibrillators are now. Half of our schools do not have spare medication, and timely use of AAIs can mean the difference between life and death. We must also challenge stigma and raise awareness across our schools. Providing dairy-free alternatives to free milk for under-fives, ensuring free school meals and breakfast clubs are allergy inclusive, and including allergy in anti-bullying policies will foster compassionate, inclusive environments.
The Minister who will reply to this debate is the Under-Secretary of State for Education, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan), but a cross-Government approach is essential. Charities have long called for an allergies tsar to co-ordinate efforts across Departments such as Education and Health. The role would champion collaboration, advocate for evidence-based changes and help embed effective policies on the ground. Access to prompt diagnosis and treatment is critical. Allergy UK proposes placing allergy nurses and dietitians in GP surgeries, reducing waiting times from months to weeks and supporting schools in creating healthcare plans.
Before I finish, I have several specific questions for the Minister. The debate has made clear the urgent need for stronger, more consistent protections for children with allergies in our schools. I respect the challenges our schools face, but the safety and wellbeing of our children must come first. I therefore ask the Minister to consider making allergy training, fully funded and supported by the DFE, mandatory for all school staff. That training must be comprehensive, evidence-based and regularly updated.
We should require every school to hold spare adrenalin and AAI pens, with clear protocols for their proper storage, maintenance and use. Those lifesaving devices must, as I have mentioned, be as accessible as defibrillators. Working closely with our colleagues at the Department for Health and Social Care, every child diagnosed with an allergy should have an individual healthcare plan, developed collaboratively with parents, schools and healthcare professionals and embedded within safeguarding policies. We should strengthen reporting requirements so that all allergic reactions and near misses in school are recorded centrally, enabling data-driven improvements in policy. We should support the appointment of an allergy tsar and make sure that organisations such as Ofsted consider a school’s approach to allergies in their inspections.
These policies, set out by various organisations, would provide a real road map to not only meet but exceed international standards for allergy safety in schools. Following these recommendations will help us to create a safer and more consistent environment in which every child with allergies is truly protected and supported. Laws that exist but are not properly implemented are not fit for purpose.
Next week, I will introduce the Schools (Allergy Safety) Bill to legislate for the mandatory training of school staff, allergy policies and spare medication at schools. It is time we took allergies seriously and enabled schools to create safe environments for children to learn and flourish. I hope that, after countless debates in this place and in the House of Commons, we can finally put this issue to bed and put our children’s safety first.
Like many allergy sufferers, I have suffered periods of anxiety when my allergies have either caused or become a vehicle for intensifying periods of poor mental health. The early physical symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction are remarkably similar to those of a panic attack: laboured breathing, potential loss of consciousness and what the medical profession call an impending sense of doom. For a child—indeed, throughout life—navigating the difference between anaphylaxis and anxiety can be incredibly difficult when their body is alerting them to threats: real threats that must not be ignored, in the case of allergy, or perceived threats, as often in cases of anxiety. That is an often under-appreciated part of what life is like for young people living with allergies. For allergy sufferers, a life of restriction, anxiety and fear is not just a one-off tragic story; it affects the everyday life of those children.
I would love to be able to say that in the 23 years since I was diagnosed with an anaphylactic allergy, the outlook for children with allergies has become much better. In fact, the biggest change in that time is that the number of people with allergies has more than doubled, while the support and infrastructure for allergy sufferers has remained much the same. The rates are such that one in 13 children now has a food allergy, which equates to two children in every classroom. That is the real importance of this debate. Data shows that 20% of food allergic reactions, and approximately 30% of first-time anaphylactic reactions, like the one we heard about from my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham), occur at school. One in five food allergic reactions occurs outside the school building: on the playground, travelling to and from school, or on school field trips.
Hospital admissions due to food-induced anaphylaxis tripled between 1998 and 2018, with the largest increase seen in children under 15, reflecting a growing incidence of severe allergic reactions. Astonishingly, it is estimated that half a million school days are lost to allergic disease each year. That has a massive impact on the educational attainment of a growing number of young people in our schools. That makes it all the more worrying that 69% of schools do not have in place the recommended safeguards of allergy policy plans, medication or training; that, despite being permitted to carry AAIs since 2017, almost half of all schools do not hold their own life-saving allergy medication; that two in five teachers feel unprepared to respond to a child experiencing an allergic reaction; and that, according to NASUWT research, 67% of teachers have had no formal allergy awareness training.
Earlier this year, I was pleased to attend the launch of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation’s allergy school module. Designed to address the lack of allergy training in schools, it is a comprehensive suite of free training resources designed to empower, include and protect children with food allergies. I have written to every school in my constituency about those fantastic resources. They have been available since January, and a module is coming later in the year for secondary school students.
I regularly speak to schools in my constituency about allergy school, and I have been heartened by the work that many schools are doing to keep allergic pupils safe. Recently, I was heartened when asked, in an interview with young reporters from the Bodnant Bugle at Bodnant community school, about my work with allergy in this place. I also heard how informed pupils and staff are working together with the aim of keeping pupils feeling safe and, crucially, included in their school community. That is a huge stride, but we must do more.
As a champion of the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, and a proud member of the APPG on allergy, I am keen to support the progression of its allergy safety action plan. The following calls are most important. All nursery and school staff should be trained in allergy awareness, allergy management, and how to respond in a food allergy emergency, including the administration of medication. Lists and photos of children with food allergies should be available to all staff to ensure that they can be easily identified and their needs can be met throughout the school day. All schools and nurseries should have a specific allergy policy that includes an anaphylaxis plan. All schools and nurseries should have an individual healthcare plan for every child with a diagnosed allergy. Such plans should always include paediatric allergy action plans and an anaphylaxis risk assessment. All schools and nurseries should record and report all known instances of food allergic reactions and, crucially, near misses.
That record keeping should be included in the evaluation criteria for Ofsted inspections. All schools should have an allergy-aware anti-bullying policy. Schools should ensure that their behaviour and anti-bullying policies include awareness of food allergy-related bullying. There should be milk alternatives for free school milk provision; allergy-friendly provision in breakfast clubs, of which we are so proud; requirements on schools to publish their catering information and the allergy assessments done by school catering staff and agencies; and provision for children who cannot safely eat school dinners, in recognition of the fact that parents of food-allergic children spend an average of 14.4% extra on their weekly food shop.
Since I became an MP, I have met so many children who suffer through allergic disease and whose experiences of growing up with allergies are painfully similar to mine, although they are 20 years apart. I hope the work that we will discuss this afternoon ensures that allergic children have a much better, safer experience of school in the future.
Parents should not have to worry about their child receiving proper care and safeguarding when they send them off to school every morning, but too many parents of children with allergies worry every day that there may be traces of allergens in food and the school environment. As we know, children share food or could use someone else’s water bottle by mistake. It is therefore vital that the safety and medical risks are decreased by allergy awareness management and emergency response training provided to all education staff.
I pay tribute to Allergy UK’s partnership with the Allergy Team, which has created essential allergy training for schools to help them confidently manage allergies and anaphylaxis to ensure a safer environment for all students and staff. Teachers need to be given the tools and skills they need to deal with medical emergencies quickly and calmly. Through that partnership, I hope schools will be safer for children with allergies.
I once again thank my hon. Friend the Member for Redditch for securing this important debate. We have heard some truly tragic stories about too many children falling ill due to a lack of training or proper equipment on allergen control. I hope that, through this debate and my hon. Friend’s ten-minute rule Bill, we can ensure that the additional safeguarding that children with allergies require in schools is introduced.
When my eldest attended residential trips, he was sent with four days-worth of frozen meals packed up in an icebox because they could not guarantee safe food for his trip. I know other parents who have been required to attend school trips so that they can safeguard their children. I also know at first hand that school staff time is stretched and there are limits under the current system. The last 14 years have seen cuts in teachers’ expertise, teaching assistants and support staff, as well as larger class sizes and lower ratios. We are faced with a growing need.
Issues around the short shelf life of auto-injectors can cause challenges with ad hoc school policies—the Tupperware box at the back of the cupboard still needs checking frequently, as many EpiPens remain in date for six months or less. A plan and protocol built into schools’ existing first-aid responses would mean checking the date as a matter of course, alongside other equipment—not when things are needed quickly and urgently.
As we await the publication of a national allergy strategy, which we hope to see later this year, questions remain about support for implementation. At present, the management of allergies is left to individual schools and trusts. The lack of national leadership and a cohesive strategy means that the experience of, and support for, children with allergies varies widely.
Research by the Benedict Blythe Foundation showed that, in 2024, as we heard, one in three schools had no allergy policy in place, while a quarter had no training on allergies, anaphylaxis or a plan for emergencies. Data from the national child mortality database shows that between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2023, two children died as a result of anaphylaxis in our schools. A 2015 report showed a 615% increase in hospital admissions. However, we do not routinely keep that data and have no idea of the true impact on our children’s lives in schools. It is essential that a database is created and maintained for an evidence-led approach.
I call on the Minister to pay particular attention to the calls for auto-injectors in all education settings, for a national allergy strategy in response to this debate, and to recognise that this will require cross-departmental working. Allergies reach into all areas of our lives: schools, housing, health, business, sport, culture—everything a child wishes to do can be affected by their allergies.
To achieve the cohesion we need in a national allergy strategy, it is essential that we work cross-departmentally. Adam Fox OBE, who chairs the National Allergy Strategy Group, has been instrumental in bringing a strategy forward. I would welcome the Minister joining us at our APPG to discuss further how we can best address the issues raised today; and how an allergy tsar could draw together those complex issues and provide proper support not just for our children, but for all allergy sufferers.
In addition to the effect on physical health, it is also important to look at the other ways in which having an allergy affects children. It can have a huge impact on key areas of their lives, including disrupting their education and limiting their social lives. Again, I refer to the lived experience shared by the hon. Members for Clwyd East (Becky Gittins) and for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) of the psychological stress and anxiety from living with this.
Allergy UK’s research shows that 61% of children with food allergies avoid social situations, such as birthday parties, to reduce risk. When we consider that number, it is really sad to know that there are so many children missing out on playing with friends or making new ones, and just enjoying what ought to be care-free moments outside school life. Occasions such as school trips and cultural celebrations in school can lead to increased levels of stress for children, parents and carers, due to uncertainty over allergen exposure and inconsistent implementation of safety practices.
There then comes the time when children move schools, from primary to secondary, or even head off to further or higher education, which brings further stress because there is not a standardised process for reviewing or updating allergy care plans across those transitions, which can lead to gaps in provision and inconsistent safety protocols. Again, that just increases stress and anxiety all the time.
We know that, in some cases, allergies can lead to severe and life-threatening reactions, so it is essential that schools have the right level of equipment to deal with those emergencies and that staff have received sufficient training. However, as many Members have observed, that is simply not happening in schools. Although there is Department for Education guidance on school food standards and allergy guidance, there is now lots of research showing that it is not enough just to have the guidance; we really need to go further. In collaboration with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, the national teachers’ union, the NASUWT, surveyed nearly 2,000 teachers across the UK and revealed really concerning findings. I will go into just a few of those and I hope that Members find them interesting.
Despite 95% of the teachers saying that there were pupils at their school with allergies, only 40% said that their school had an allergy policy; 46% said that they did not know whether there was a policy; and 13% said definitively that their school had no allergy policy. On top of that, when it came to training on administering an adrenalin pen, only 28% of teachers said that they had received training in the current academic year; 20% had received training last year; 34% said that they had received training but not in the last two academic years; and 17.5% said that they had never received any training at all. I found those figures fascinating—just the distribution and the inconsistency across that. There were also questions about broader allergy training, such as on adapting classroom practices to reduce the risk and ensuring that activities are safe but inclusive. The survey found that two thirds of respondents had never received any training on those elements.
Research carried out last year by the Benedict Blythe Foundation found that 70% of schools—as has been mentioned—did not have spare allergy pens, allergy trained staff or a school allergy policy. There is no current requirement for schools to provide those, even for pupils at high risk. School staff look after our children day in and day out, which is a huge responsibility on their shoulders. Expecting them to act in an emergency without the proper equipment or training is just not reasonable.
Finally, I draw attention to Allergy UK’s trial, which embedded specialist allergy nurses and dietitians in primary care settings. It has been mentioned already, but with that earlier support for families and clearer clinical guidance to inform school-based care, we get safer day-to-day management for children with complex allergy needs. The trial saw waiting times reduced dramatically: 95% of patients were managed safely within primary care, and it cut unnecessary referrals to secondary care to just 5%.
The Liberal Democrats believe that these kinds of pilots, which invest in public health and early access to community services, reduce the spend on NHS crisis firefighting and ultimately save money in the long term. Therefore, I hope that the Government will take account of the evidence from the Allergy UK trial and look to roll that pilot out nationally in a bid to bring about positive change in schools and beyond. Surely we owe it to children, parents, carers and staff working in schools to make sure that those schools are safe places for everyone.
In schools, we introduced a duty on governing boards to make arrangements to support pupils with medical conditions, so that they are all supported to actively play a part in school life. In practical terms, in 2017 we changed the law to enable schools to have their own supply of adrenalin auto-injectors for use. There is scope to go much further, but half of schools have them, up from relatively few before that change in the law. Of course, a conclusion from this debate is that there is lots of scope for pens to be available in more schools, and for us to do more to ensure that they are in date and that everyone knows where they are so they can be used at a useful point.
One of the bigger things we did was bring in the statutory school food standards in 2015, which removed things like nuts as an acceptable snack. We got all schools to do a risk assessment of the way they handle these issues. We also updated the allergy advice for schools more broadly to emphasise the importance of awareness-raising about common allergies and to get more staff to recognise symptoms, particularly anaphylaxis. Again, as hon. Members have pointed out, there is scope to go further to improve the training of teachers across the board.
One thing that has not been mentioned so far is the ongoing debate about Owen’s law, and the availability of information about ingredients in restaurants and settings where food is not prepackaged. It is a complex debate, but there is clearly scope to do better and to ensure that children and people of all ages feel more included in our society. I wish Ministers well in coming to a landing on some of these questions. Even just the discussion about them and the campaign itself is doing a lot of good to get providers to change their behaviour and to be more inclusive.
There has been progress, but, as Members have said, there is a lot more to do in our schools to ensure that children are kept safe and can play a full part in school life and in their broader community, without having to worry or constantly duck out of or be excluded from activities that they want to be part of. This has not been a politically contentious debate. I look forward to hearing from the Minister about the next steps.