Allergies: Children
(asked on 17th June 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to introduce a public health campaign on allergy awareness in children.
To help promote awareness of allergies, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on a range of allergy conditions, including food allergy in people under the age of 19 years old, anaphylaxis and drug allergy. NICE promotes its guidance via its website, newsletters and other media.
In June 2023, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), with the support of allergy awareness advocates, launched a safety campaign to raise awareness of anaphylaxis and provide advice on the use of adrenaline auto-injectors (AAIs). MHRA produced a toolkit of resources for health and social care professionals to support the safe and effective use of AAIs.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) encourages food businesses to complete the FSA’s allergen e-learning course and recommends that it is retaken annually to refresh knowledge and ensure that businesses are up to date on any changes which may have occurred. The FSA online training is free and offers practical advice to anyone wanting to learn more about food allergy.
Section 100 of The Children and Families Act 2014 places a legal duty on schools to make arrangements for supporting pupils at their school with medical conditions, including allergies. The Department for Education recently reminded schools of their legal duties in their regular schools’ email bulletin, and also alerted schools to the newly created Schools Allergy Code, developed by The Allergy Team, the Independent Schools' Bursars Association and the Benedict Blythe Foundation. The Department for Education has now also added a link to the Code to their online allergy guidance on GOV.UK, which is available at the following link: