Allergy Safety for MATs: What Trust Leaders Need to Know

 For a Multi Academy Trust, allergy safety is not only about what happens in one school, it is about having confidence that appropriate processes are understood and followed across every school in the Trust.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 has introduced new statutory allergy safety duties for schools in England. Maintained schools and academies must have an allergy safety policy, and the Government’s statutory guidance sets expectations around areas including staff training, pupil wellbeing, Individual Healthcare Plans, emergency response, information sharing and learning from incidents and near misses.

For MAT leaders, this creates an important question:

How confident are you that allergy safety is being managed consistently across your Trust?

What has changed?

Under Section 34 of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026, schools must have an allergy safety policy.

The Government’s allergy safety policy template provides further detail on what schools should consider when putting that policy into practice.

It recommends that responsibility sits with a named member of the senior leadership team. Policies should be reviewed at least annually, with further reviews following serious incidents or near misses where appropriate. Schools should also make their policy readily available to parents and staff.

The template covers staff training, wellbeing, reducing exposure to known allergens, identifying pupils with allergies, Individual Healthcare Plans, access to adrenaline, school trips, incident reporting and careful information sharing.

For individual schools, that means reviewing their own policies and processes.

For MATs, there is another layer to consider: consistency across the Trust.

Why MATs face a different challenge

A process can look effective when viewed within one school. Across ten, twenty or fifty schools, the picture can be very different.

One school might record dietary requirements in one system. Another might use spreadsheets. A third might rely on printed lists passed between the office and kitchen.

Responsibility may also sit with different roles from school to school. That can make it difficult for Trust leaders to understand how allergy information is being managed across their estate.

Our Allergy in Schools 2026 research found that 40% of schools surveyed use multiple platforms to record allergy requirements. It also identified greater challenges for larger MATs around scale, consistency and coordination between sites.

New statutory duties make this a good time to look beyond whether each school has a policy and consider how those policies translate into everyday practice.

1. Establish what is happening across your Trust today

Before introducing new processes, understand the current picture:

• How does each school collect allergy information?

• Where is that information stored?

• How are updates communicated?

• How does information reach catering teams?

• Who is responsible for reviewing it?

• What happens when a pupil moves between schools within the Trust?

You may find that schools are working towards the same goal in very different ways.

Tip for MATs: carry out a Trust wide review of allergy processes. Look for differences in systems, responsibilities, communication and record keeping, not simply whether a policy exists.

2. Create consistency without ignoring individual pupil needs

Consistency does not mean treating every pupil or school identically.

Individual children may require different arrangements, and the Government template recognises the role of Individual Healthcare Plans where a pupil requires additional or different support because of their allergy.

The opportunity for MATs is to create a consistent framework around those individual requirements.

Schools can follow common processes for collecting information, communicating changes, training relevant staff and recording incidents, while still responding appropriately to each pupil.

Tip for MATs: identify which allergy management processes should be consistent across every school and where individual schools need flexibility.

3. Look closely at the quality of your information

A central process is only valuable if the information within it is accurate and current.

Our research found that 39% of schools surveyed struggle to keep dietary data up to date, while 48% cite human error as their biggest risk.

For a MAT, those challenges can multiply across schools. If information is being manually transferred between forms, spreadsheets, emails and catering systems, Trust leaders may have limited visibility of whether everyone is working from the same information.

Tip for MATs: review where information is entered more than once and where updates depend on somebody remembering to pass information to another team.

4. Strengthen communication between parents, schools and caterers

Allergy safety involves several people. Parents hold important information about their child. Schools need that information to support the pupil appropriately. Catering teams need relevant dietary information to prepare and serve suitable meals.

Our research found that 30% of schools surveyed identify communication with catering staff as a primary difficulty.

For MATs working with internal catering teams or external catering partners, clear responsibilities and communication processes become particularly important.

Tip for MATs: map how a change submitted by a parent reaches the school and catering team. Consider how that information is checked and how each party knows they are working from the current version.

5. Make training consistent across the Trust

The Government policy template says staff should receive allergy awareness and emergency response training at least annually.

This includes relevant permanent, temporary, supply and agency staff, regular volunteers, catering teams and breakfast and after school staff who are present when pupils are on site. It also highlights the need for appropriate arrangements for new staff and cover staff.

For MATs, this creates an opportunity to establish clearer expectations across the whole organisation.

Tip for MATs: understand how training is currently delivered and recorded across schools. Look for gaps between sites and consider how Trust wide expectations can support greater consistency.

6. Consider allergy safety beyond the dining hall

Allergy safety does not begin and end at lunchtime. The Government template asks schools to consider potential exposure across the school day, including classroom activities, cooking, science, craft activities, animals, sports, playgrounds and educational visits.

It also covers access to prescribed adrenaline and spare adrenaline devices.

For pupils at risk of anaphylaxis, the template states that prescribed adrenaline should be rapidly accessible at all times, including in lunch areas, playgrounds, sports fields and during visits and trips.

Tip for MATs: make sure Trust level reviews consider the whole school environment rather than treating allergy safety solely as a catering responsibility.

7. Learn consistently from incidents and near misses

One of the most valuable parts of a strong allergy safety process is learning when something goes wrong, or nearly goes wrong.

The Government template says policies should explain how serious incidents and near misses are recorded, reported and responded to. It also says policy reviews should consider lessons that can be learned.

Our research found that 30% of schools surveyed had experienced a minor incident or near miss, while a further 10% were unsure whether incidents had occurred.

For MATs, there is an opportunity to learn beyond the individual school.

An issue identified at one academy may reveal a process that should be reviewed elsewhere.

Tip for MATs: consider how relevant learning from incidents and near misses can be shared appropriately across the Trust.

8. Build visibility at Trust level

This is where the MAT perspective becomes particularly important.

A Trust leader should not need to piece together information from different spreadsheets, emails and local processes simply to understand what is happening across their schools.

Greater visibility can help MATs identify inconsistencies, support schools that need additional attention and create clearer accountability.

It can also make conversations with catering partners more productive because both sides have a clearer understanding of the processes being followed.

The goal is not centralisation for its own sake.

It is greater confidence that appropriate processes are being followed consistently across the Trust.

From having policies to having confidence

The introduction of statutory allergy safety duties should not become a paperwork exercise. A policy is important, but the real test comes on an ordinary school day.

The question for MAT leaders is whether the processes behind the policy continue to work when those everyday situations occur.

Technology cannot remove allergy risk or replace appropriate policies, staff training, Individual Healthcare Plans, emergency procedures or professional judgement.

But it can help reduce some of the fragmented and manual processes that make managing information consistently more difficult.

How Scopay can support MATs

Scopay has worked with schools and caterers for more than 20 years.

Our approach to allergy and dietary requirement management is focused on helping connect the people and information involved in the school meal journey.

One clearer view across the Trust

For MATs, Dietary Requirements can support a more consistent approach to managing allergy and dietary information across schools.

Rather than individual academies relying on separate local processes, relevant information can form part of a more connected approach, giving Trusts greater visibility and supporting consistency across their schools.

Connecting parents, schools and caterers

Dietary Requirements supports a three way process involving parents, schools and caterers.

Parents can submit information about their child. Schools can review and approve it. Catering teams can receive relevant approved dietary information.

This can help reduce reliance on information being manually passed from one person or system to another.

Supporting appropriate menu choices

Approved dietary information can be used to support appropriate menu choices for pupils, helping reduce reliance on manual checks and supporting catering teams in managing different dietary requirements.

That includes allergies alongside dietary requirements arising from religion, culture and preferences.

Relevant information at the point of service

Scopay Point of Service helps make relevant pupil information available to serving teams when a child reaches the counter. This can support safer meal service while reducing reliance on paper lists and visible identifiers such as wristbands or lanyards.

For pupils, that can contribute to a more discreet and inclusive lunchtime experience.

Connecting the wider meal journey

Scopay Meal Management brings together more of the school meal journey, from planning and parent pre orders through to meal numbers and reconciliation.

For MATs, the wider opportunity is greater visibility and consistency across schools, while reducing administration for individual teams.

Is your Trust ready?

The new statutory duties give MATs an opportunity to ask a bigger question than whether every academy has produced an allergy safety policy. Do you have confidence in what happens behind that policy across every school in your Trust?

Clearer information. More consistent processes. Better communication between parents, schools and caterers. Greater visibility across the Trust.

These are practical steps that can support safer and more inclusive experiences for pupils while making allergy and dietary requirement management simpler for the people responsible for delivering it every day.

If your Trust is reviewing its approach to allergy and dietary requirement management, speak to Scopay about how Dietary Requirements, Point of Service and Meal Management can support a more connected approach across your schools.

Safer for pupils. Simpler for staff. Smarter for the Trust.