Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Children’s Wellbeing Bill will include provisions to help schools provide up to date allergy awareness education for pupils and staff.

The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will ensure our education and children’s social care systems transform life chances for millions of children and young people in England.

The precise content of the Bill will be confirmed upon the Bill’s introduction, which will be as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units to make arrangements for supporting pupils with medical conditions, including allergies.

The accompanying statutory guidance ‘Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions’ makes clear to schools what is expected of them in taking reasonable steps to fulfil their legal obligations and to meet the individual needs of pupils with medical conditions. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/supporting-pupils-at-school-with-medical-conditions--3. Schools should ensure they are aware of any pupils with medical conditions and have policies and processes in place to ensure these can be well managed. Policies should set out how staff will be supported in carrying out their role to support pupils, including how training needs are assessed and how training is commissioned and provided. Any member of school staff providing support to a pupil with medical needs should have received suitable training.

From September 2020, relationships education became compulsory for all primary school-aged pupils, relationships and sex education compulsory for all secondary school-aged pupils, and health education compulsory for all pupils in state-funded schools in England. The statutory guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education.

This guidance states that by the end of primary school, pupils should be taught the facts and science relating to allergies, immunisation and vaccination.

The department is currently reviewing the relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has been clear that children’s wellbeing must be at the heart of this guidance for schools. As such the department will look carefully at the consultation responses, discuss with stakeholders and consider the relevant evidence before setting out next steps.