This is the newest part of the compliance picture and the part most often misdescribed. Two claims in particular are circulating and both are wrong.
Two claims to avoid
What is actually in force
| What | Where it comes from | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Schools must have an allergy safety policy, review it annually and publish it | Section 34, Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, inserting s.100A into the Children and Families Act 2014 | Legal duty, in force |
| A power to make regulations about staff training, allergen management and incident recording | Section 34, inserting s.100B | Enabling power. The regulations have not been made |
| Staff should receive regular, at least annual, allergy awareness training | Allergy safety in schools, DfE statutory guidance, 6 July 2026 | Statutory guidance, a should |
| That training should include supply teachers and agency workers | Same guidance | Statutory guidance, a should |
| First aid training is not sufficient | Same guidance | Statutory guidance |
| Schools expected to stock spare adrenaline devices | Same guidance | An expectation. The power to require it sits in the forthcoming regulations |
Why supply staff are named specifically
The guidance is unusually direct about who it covers. It says training should reach all staff present while pupils are scheduled to be on site, and lists permanent staff, temporary staff, supply teachers, peripatetic staff, agency workers and regular volunteers, as well as catering and wraparound club staff. It excludes contractors with no pupil-facing role, such as builders.
That is the strongest allergy claim available to an agency, and it happens to be true: the statutory guidance names your candidates by category.
Why a supply teacher in particular needs it
- They do not know the children. A permanent teacher knows which child carries a device. A supply teacher has to ask, and has to know what to ask.
- Reactions happen at lunch and at break, which are exactly the moments a supply teacher is least supported.
- Around one anaphylaxis in five presents with no rash at all, so the most recognisable sign is the one you cannot rely on.
- The response is time-critical and counter-intuitive: lay the child flat, bring the device to them, and never walk them to the medical room.
- Craft, cooking and junk modelling are exactly the lessons a supply teacher gets handed, and empty food packaging is a real exposure route.
Where “Benedict’s Law” fits
It is the campaign of the Benedict Blythe Foundation, following the death of Benedict Blythe. The campaign’s substance became section 34 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 and the July 2026 statutory guidance. Using the name as recognisable shorthand is fine. Citing it as though it were a statute is not, and anyone who does is telling you they have not read the source.
What good looks like on a placement
Before the children come in, a supply teacher should know which children in the class have an allergy and to what, where the spare adrenaline devices are kept, whether they can reach them within five minutes from that room, and how to call for help without leaving the class. If the school cannot answer those questions, that is itself worth reporting back.