A pupil arrives mid-term with a nut allergy, an inhaler and a plan from their previous school, and three different staff need to know about it by Monday. In a small setting, that information can end up in an email, a paper folder and one person’s head, which is exactly where it fails you on a trip or a cover day.
Record each pupil’s conditions, allergies, medication, emergency steps, GP and parent contacts in one place. Review it at least termly and whenever something changes. Show allergies and emergency information clearly to staff working with that pupil, including cover staff and trip leaders, but keep wider health detail to those who need it.
What should you record?
For every pupil, a short medical section should cover:
- Conditions: for example asthma, epilepsy, diabetes, or a mental health need that affects the school day.
- Allergies: the allergen, the type of reaction and whether there is a risk of anaphylaxis.
- Medication: what, when, where it is kept, and who is trained to give it. Note expiry dates for adrenaline devices and inhalers.
- Emergency action: what staff should do, in plain steps.
- Contacts: parents or carers, and the pupil’s GP.
- Plans from others: whether an individual healthcare plan exists, who wrote it and where the current copy is.
Also note “no known medical needs” when that is the answer. A blank field and a confirmed “none” are not the same thing.
Which guidance applies to your setting?
In England, Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions is statutory guidance for maintained schools, academies (including AP academies) and pupil referral units. It explains how to meet their legal duty, under section 100 of the Children and Families Act 2014, to make arrangements for pupils with medical conditions, and includes templates for healthcare plans and medicine records. It does not directly apply to independent schools, tuition centres or unregistered AP providers, but it is the clearest benchmark available, and commissioning schools will expect similar care.
For allergies, the DfE published Allergy safety in schools in July 2026. It is statutory for the same group of schools, who must now have a published allergy safety policy. The government says it intends to bring in equivalent requirements for independent schools through their regulatory standards, and to make stocking spare adrenaline devices a duty through future regulations.
In Wales, the Welsh Government’s Supporting learners with healthcare needs guidance covers similar ground for schools and local authorities.
What is an individual healthcare plan, and who writes it?
An individual healthcare plan (IHP) describes a pupil’s needs and what staff do day to day and in an emergency. It is usually agreed with parents, the pupil and health professionals. Not every pupil with a condition needs one. They matter most where needs are complex, change often or carry a risk of an emergency.
If you are an AP provider or tuition centre, the plan often comes from the pupil’s home school. Ask for it at referral, check it is current, and agree who tells whom when it changes. Record in your own system that a plan exists, its date and the key emergency steps, so staff are not relying on finding a document in a folder.
How do you keep it current?
Medical information goes stale quietly. A few habits help:
- Ask parents to confirm medical details at enrolment and at the start of each term.
- Update the record the same day you hear about a change, and date it.
- Check medication expiry dates on a set schedule.
- Review plans after any incident or near miss, and at least annually.
How do you make it visible without oversharing?
Health information is special category data under UK GDPR, so you need a good reason to share it and should keep access to those who need it. The balance is between safety and privacy:
- Everyone working with the pupil should know about life-threatening allergies and emergency steps.
- Wider detail, such as diagnoses, mental health history or family context, should stay with the staff who need it to support the pupil.
- Talk to the pupil and parents about who will be told. Older pupils in particular may have strong views.
The DfE allergy guidance describes keeping a list of pupils with known allergies, with current photos and allergens, where food is served or handled, but in areas accessible to staff only. That is a useful principle for all medical information: visible to the right people, not on the classroom wall.
What about trips and cover staff?
These are the moments records most often fail. Before any trip, print or download a list of pupils going with their medical needs, medication and emergency contacts, and check the medication physically goes too. Brief cover staff and new tutors before their first session, not after. Where a pupil is picked up by taxi, make sure the transport arrangements and escort know about anything that could become an emergency on the journey.
Take a fictional example. At a small AP provider in Swansea, a supply tutor covering a Tuesday group checked each pupil’s record before the session and saw one pupil’s severe allergy highlighted. She checked the pupil’s bag, found the auto-injector had been left at home and phoned the carer before the session started.
How PupilDB helps
PupilDB’s pupil records hold medical notes, allergies, GP, parent and carer contacts and taxi details together, with allergies shown in red so they stand out. Teachers work from the timetable and registers, and admins can run a medical report before a trip. PupilDB does not store individual healthcare plan documents, so record where the current plan is kept.
