Glossary
Allergy safety terms, in plain English.
The words you'll meet in Benedict's Law, the DfE guidance and your allergy safety policy.
- Adrenaline auto-injector (AAI)
- A pre-filled device that injects adrenaline, prescribed for people at risk of anaphylaxis. Schools can also keep spare AAIs for emergencies.
- Adrenaline device
- The DfE guidance's term covering adrenaline auto-injectors and adrenaline nasal sprays. Only auto-injectors can currently be stocked as spares.
- Allergy Action Plan
- A plan written by a pupil's healthcare professional setting out what to do if they have an allergic reaction. It is attached to their Individual Healthcare Plan.
- Allergy aware
- An approach to food and allergy risk that covers all allergens and manages risk through preparation, supervision and identification, rather than declaring a site 'nut-free'.
- Allergy safety policy
- The dedicated policy that covered schools in England must have, review every year, make known to staff, parents and pupils, and publish on their website.
- Anaphylaxis
- A severe and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
- Benedict's Law
- The common name for the allergy safety duty for schools in England in section 34 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, named after Benedict Blythe.
- Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
- The Act of Parliament containing the allergy safety duty (section 34), which amends the Children and Families Act 2014.
- Have regard to
- The legal standard for statutory guidance: schools must follow it unless they have a good reason not to, and should be able to explain any departure.
- Individual Healthcare Plan (IHP)
- A plan agreed between the school, the pupil, their parents and healthcare professionals, setting out how the school supports a pupil with a medical condition such as a serious allergy.
- Natasha's Law
- The rule, in force since 1 October 2021, that food prepacked for direct sale must be labelled with a full ingredients list with the 14 allergens emphasised. Named after Natasha Ednan-Laperouse.
- Near miss
- An event that could have caused an allergic reaction but did not. The DfE guidance expects schools to record and learn from near misses.
- PPDS
- Prepacked for direct sale: food packed on the same premises where it is sold or served, before it is ordered, such as sandwiches wrapped in a school kitchen.
- Senior leader for allergy safety
- The named member of the senior leadership team responsible for allergy safety, which the DfE guidance expects every covered school to have.
- Spare adrenaline device
- An adrenaline auto-injector bought by the school, without a prescription, for use in an emergency, in line with the DfE guidance and the school's allergy safety policy.
- Special category data
- Personal data that needs extra protection under UK GDPR, including health data such as allergy information.
- Statutory guidance
- Guidance issued under law that the bodies it names must have regard to. The DfE's Allergy safety in schools (July 2026) is statutory guidance for covered schools.
- The 14 allergens
- Celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, tree nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya, and sulphur dioxide and sulphites. Food businesses must give information about them.