DfE consultation: supporting children with medical conditions and allergies

On 5 March 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) launched a consultation on proposed revisions to the statutory guidance on supporting children and young people with medical conditions in schools.

The consultation is accompanied by draft guidance titled “Supporting children and young people with medical conditions and allergy”, which is intended to replace the current guidance published in December 2015.

The draft guidance is issued under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014, which currently places a duty on governing bodies of maintained schools, proprietors of academies and management committees of pupil referral units (PRUs) to support pupils with medical conditions. The duty doesn’t currently extend to independent schools, but the consultation invites views on whether it should.

Key proposals include published medical conditions and allergy safety policies, strengthened individual healthcare plans (IHPs), clearer requirements around staff training and new expectations for recording and learning from serious incidents and ‘near misses’. The consultation closes on 1 May 2026, with the DfE’s response expected in summer 2026.

Although the statutory duty doesn’t yet apply to independent schools, the DfE encourages voluntary adoption of the proposed standards. This article summarises the key proposals and what they may mean in practice.

Inclusive education and wellbeing

The draft guidance expects schools to enable every child with a medical condition to participate fully in school life. Support is framed around three categories of risk: risk to health and life, risk to learning and risk to wellbeing.

Schools’ policies should address how wellbeing will be promoted, including measures to support mental health and tackle bullying linked to medical conditions.

The guidance lists a number of ‘unacceptable’ practices, including:

• Penalising children for medical-related absences
• Expecting parents to administer medication in school
• Restricting participation in activities or trips
• Leaving unwell children unsupervised.

Independent schools should take careful note of this list when reviewing their own policies.

Medical conditions policies

The draft guidance proposes that every school should maintain a medical conditions policy, published on its website, setting out how it will support children with medical conditions, including allergy.

A named governor and a named senior leader should be responsible for the policy, which should be reviewed at least annually and following any serious incident.

Expected content includes:

• Identification and inclusion of affected children (including on trips)
• IHP development
• Staff training
• Emergency response procedures
• Reasonable adjustments
• Medication management
• Promotion of wellbeing.

Risks relating to medical conditions should be recorded on the school’s risk register and actively managed by governors.

Individual healthcare plans

The draft guidance strengthens expectations around IHPs. Any child whose medical condition requires the school to provide support should have an IHP, developed collaboratively with the child, parents and relevant healthcare professionals.

Importantly, a formal diagnosis isn’t necessary. Schools are expected to act promptly where a child’s medical needs are affecting their school life.

IHPs should record what support is needed, how it will be delivered, when and by whom. They are particularly important where a child requires prescribed medication, allergy management or reasonable adjustments, and should be reviewed at least annually.

Staff training

Governing bodies must ensure that all staff – including teaching staff, support staff, supply staff and those responsible for extended provision – are familiar with the medical conditions policy.

Where individual children have specific conditions, additional training must be provided so that relevant staff are competent and confident in carrying out IHP requirements. The guidance is clear that a child’s attendance should never be restricted due to staffing shortfalls.

Allergy safety: a separate policy requirement

One of the most significant proposals is the requirement for a dedicated allergy safety policy, separate from the general medical conditions policy. This reflects the potentially fatal risk of anaphylaxis.

Approximately one in five children with allergies experience their first allergic reaction at school, and all staff must be able to recognise and respond to anaphylaxis.

The policy should cover:

• Identification of children with allergies
• Measures to minimise allergen exposure
• Staff training
• Access to prescribed and ‘spare’ adrenaline autoinjector (AAI) devices
• Wellbeing promotion.

Notably, the guidance favours an ‘allergy aware’ approach over blanket ‘nut-free’ policies, on the basis that the latter can create a false sense of security.

Adrenaline devices

All schools would be expected to hold spare AAI devices for emergency use, as permitted by the Human Medicines (Amendment) Regulations 2017.

Devices must be readily accessible, no more than five minutes from the point of need, regularly checked for expiry and replaced as necessary.

Serious incidents and ‘near misses’

The draft guidance introduces formal expectations around recording, reporting and learning from serious incidents and ‘near misses’.

A ‘serious incident’ includes any event requiring emergency medication, urgent clinical intervention or emergency services. A ‘near miss’ is an event that didn’t result in harm but had clear potential to do so.

Schools should create a written record, report through appropriate channels and carry out a ‘lessons-learned’ exercise. The designated governor and senior leader should consider whether the incident was foreseeable, whether policies were adequate and what preventive steps could be taken.

Schools should also be aware of their obligations under Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) and, where applicable, food safety reporting requirements.

Extension of the statutory duty to independent schools

For the independent sector, a key question in the consultation is whether the statutory duty under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014 should be extended to cover independent schools, as well as further education colleges, post-16 institutions and non-maintained special schools.

Currently, the duty applies only to maintained schools, academies and PRUs. In the meantime, the DfE encourages independent schools to adopt the proposed standards voluntarily.

Independent schools will want to consider this carefully. While many already have robust arrangements in place, a formal extension of the statutory duty would place them on the same footing as maintained schools and academies. Schools may wish to respond to the consultation on this point and, regardless of the outcome, review their current policies against the draft guidance as a matter of good practice.

What happens next?

The consultation closes on 1 May 2026. Responses are invited from a broad range of stakeholders, including school staff, governors, parents and healthcare professionals.

Independent schools would be well advised to begin reviewing their existing arrangements against the draft proposals now, particularly in relation to medical conditions and allergy safety policies, IHP processes, staff training and incident reporting. We’ll provide a further update once the final guidance is published.