Benedict’s Law: How one five-year-old boy changed allergy safety in our schools
Four years after Benedict Blythe died, our documentary looks at how lessons learned from his death are being rolled out across the country
The way schools in England handle allergy safety has changed forever, and its all because of a five year old boy and his family.
Benedict Blythe died after suffering a fatal allergic reaction at his primary school in December 2021.
What is Benedict's Law?
As a result of lessons learned from his death, schools are now required to put stronger allergy-safety arrangements in place, including allergy awareness training for staff, individual healthcare plans for children who need them and emergency arrangements including having spare adrenaline auto-injectors, known as epi-pens.
The new rules are known as Benedict's Law after Benedict Blythe.
For Benedict's mother Helen Blythe, the moment the rules were put in place is both a milestone and a reminder of the little boy at the heart of the campaign.
“Benedict was the sweetest little boy,” she said.
She remembers him on his first day of school noticing another child who was nervous.
“He reaches out his hand and he says, ‘I'll take you in.’ It's probably a good summary of who he is.”
Children protected by Benedict's Law
Four years after his death, his name is now attached to a set of protections intended to prevent other children and families experiencing the same loss.
The story of Benedict's Law, told in our new documentary
Benedict died in December 2021 after being accidentally exposed to cow's milk protein at Barnack Primary School, near Stamford. He had a known milk allergy.
The subsequent inquest heard that there were multiple contributing factors to his death.
A jury found that there had been a delay in administering adrenaline and that Benedict's allergy plan had not been shared with teaching staff.
It also identified risks around contamination or a mix-up involving milk.
The jury concluded that Benedict's death followed accidental exposure to cow's milk protein, causing fatal anaphylaxis.
Helen says the inquest was a pivotal moment for the family.
Family of Benedict Blythe campaigned for changes
“We had campaigned at that point for nearly three years and until the day of the inquest, we had no idea what had happened to him,” Benedict's mum Helen said.
“I think for us, we brought home why we were doing this in the inquest, the fact that actually had all these measures been in place, he almost certainly would still be here.”
For Helen and Benedict's father Peter, the loss was overwhelming.
“Losing our son is the most devastating thing that's ever happened in our life,” Helen said.
But the family decided to use their experience to campaign for changes they believed could protect other children.
“We started to get all these messages from families telling us their stories of pain and hope and the challenges that they had faced in sending their children off to school and them being safe,” Helen said.
“And we recognised that we had a voice in being able to change that for them.”
The campaign gathered support from allergy organisations, families, medical professionals and politicians.
When was Benedict's Law introduced?
On 9 July 2025, the School (Allergy Safety) Bill was introduced to Parliament.
A major breakthrough came on 4 February 2026, when an allergy-safety amendment won a vote in the House of Lords.
On 10 March, the Government committed to introducing its own amendment covering the core principles of Benedict's Law, and on 25 March that amendment was agreed in the Lords.
The measures were subsequently incorporated into the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
The Act requires schools to have an allergy safety policy, review it at least annually and publicise it to staff, pupils and parents.
Then, on 6 July, the Department for Education published its statutory guidance.
From 1 September, the relevant provision requiring schools to have an allergy safety policy came fully into force.
Changes to allergy guidance in schools as they become more common
Food allergy is increasingly common among children.
Adam Fox, chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group, said food allergy affects around 5% of children in the UK.
“Every year in the UK, there are 10 to 20 deaths as a result of allergic reactions,” he said.
“One of the things that makes food allergy very difficult is the unpredictable nature of reactions that children can have.”
Around two children in every classroom have an allergy, while schools are among the most common locations for severe allergic reactions outside the home.
Up to 30% of severe reactions occur in children with no prior diagnosis, meaning a school cannot necessarily rely on a child already being identified as being at risk.
That is one reason the new guidance focuses on whole-school awareness rather than placing responsibility solely on children known to have allergies.
Schools are expected to put allergy safety training in place for all staff, identify pupils who need individual healthcare plans, establish an allergy safety policy and record and learn from serious incidents and near misses.
For Alicia Kearns MP, who became involved in the campaign and brought it to parliament, Benedict's story made the need for change impossible to ignore.
“I became aware of Helen and Peter's campaign and it was hard not to,” she said.
“They fought an incredible campaign trying to make sure that they could save the lives of other children, protections that would've saved their boy.”
‘This is Benedict's legacy’
For Helen, seeing the changes implemented is the culmination of years of campaigning.
“This is something that we as a family have campaigned for through Benedict's Law for the last four years,” she said.
“Seeing this come to fruition and that this is something that for the first time is going to be implemented in schools is a huge moment.”
She describes the legislation as Benedict's legacy.
“This is essentially our son's legacy. This is our son Benedict's name kind of etched into the history books and it's his memory that we can take forward in a really positive way that will protect other children like him.”
But, a month into the new school year, Helen says the campaign is not finished.
Should Benedict's Law cover the whole of the UK?
She wants to see equivalent protections introduced across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, arguing that children should not face different levels of protection depending on which side of a border they live on.
She also wants the measures eventually extended to settings including nurseries, early-years provision, sixth-form colleges and universities.
“We'd like it to be that all education settings from start of nursery through to university all have the same level of safety for children with allergies,” she said.
The Department for Education's current guidance says it may also be useful to early-years settings, further-education colleges and independent schools, but they are not all currently subject to the same statutory requirements.
For now, though, the first stage is in place.
A little over four years after Benedict went into school one morning and never came home, millions of adults working in England's schools are beginning to learn what his family wished the adults around him had known.
And for Helen, that is the most important part of what comes next.
“We still have work to do,” she said.