04/09/2026
Factual Friday -
How much do you know about Benedicts Law?
Historically schools and early years have requested children who require Auto injectors for their Anaphylaxis, to supply them with spare Auto injectors to keep at school, in the event of an incident.
Why is this a problem?
* These can only be used for the child they are prescribed to.
* Often they are not checked and go out of date.
* They are often locked away in a cupboard and then obtaining them in an emergency is delayed.
* This is an additional strain on the NHS as double the required units are prescribed and often never used. This is very expensive and complete waste of resources.
* Parents and ultimately children are not taught the importance of having these life saving injectors with them at all times.
* People become complacent and do not carry their auto injectors with them as they have spare at school !!
* This then breeds complacency generally and children become adults who do not carry their medication with them.
* The setting has no spare auto injectors they can use on a child if theirs are lost, damaged, etc.
Benedicts Law, has come about after five year old Benedict Blythe died from an allergic reaction at school in 2021.
The basics behind the legislation are -
Schools and early years must -
* They must have a dedicated allergy policy and publish it on their website.
* All staff on site, must have allergy awareness and response training.
* Schools must have unassigned Auto injectors for rapid emergency use.
* Individual healthcare plans must be provided for all students with significant allergy risks. (All businesses should risk assess staff members as well and put procedures in place to reduce the risk of harm.)
* Someone senior in the setting should be named to oversee all protocols in place for allergy prevention and response. Plus any incident reporting and any required review of procedures.
There is a new Level 3 Allergy & Anaphylaxis Awareness qualification. Which is a 2 hour session covering -
* Benedicts Law, how it affects the setting.
* What needs to be done to implement all procedures required to comply with the law.
* Plus, train all attendees to recognise and respond to an allergy emergency.
If you would like to know more about Benedicts Law, or would like to look at training we can provide, both accredited and non accredited sessions, please do not hesitate to get in touch.