Benedict’s Law – Changes to School Requirements in regards to Anaphylaxis

• 5 min read
• First Aid

It was announced last week that Benedict’s Law is coming into effect from September 2026. This legislative change, named after 5-year old Benedict Blythe, who sadly suffered a fatal allergic reaction to cow’s milk at his Primary School, will mean there are various changes required in schools to prevent similar situations.

Key details of the requirements under Benedict’s Law include:

• Mandatory training for ALL staff members: the training is not just for designated first aiders, but for all staff, including teachers, assistants, lunch supervisors and office staff with practical use of auto-injectors
• Annual Refresher – to keep systems consistent and keep up with changing allergy action plans, annual training is recommended.
• Content –  Training must cover spotting symptoms of anaphylaxis, the proper use of adrenaline auto-injectors (often known as Epi-pens), and an understanding of the school’s specific allergy policy.
• Schools must stock spare Adrenaline Auto-injectors in case of emergencies
• Schools should maintain individual allergy action plans for pupils
• Regular allergy incident drills should be held

As a result of these changes we have had an increased number of requests for Anaphylaxis Training.

IN-HOUSE TRAINING – Our Ambulance Crew Trainers are able to come and deliver on-site at your school or setting training that meets the requirements of Benedict’s Law listed above. The Anaphylaxis training would take 1.5 hours per group and can have up to 16 delegates per session. As there are a large number of staff in most settings that require training, we are able to run multiple sessions across a day for example within a full day we could run 5 sessions, training a total of 80 delegates. If you struggle to cover your staff members, we can also offer twilight sessions if these are more suitable for you or inset day training (please note inset days are very popular so we would recommend booking well in advance).

OPEN COURSES – We currently have a combined Anaphylaxis, Asthma & Epilepsy training course running in Norwich on 18th May £50pp + VAT (More info here). We suspect that due to the large number of staff that schools are requiring to be trained, most settings preference will be for an on-site drop in style training day. If we do find an increased demand for open courses though, we will add additional sessions so please do get in touch if you would like more courses on this.

Benedicts Law (Anaphylaxis) Training (PDF)