With severe allergies on the rise, no childcare centre, pre-school or school can afford to be uninformed about the risks to children in their care. They need to arm themselves with information on food allergy and anaphylaxis and create environments that are safer for all.

Depending on the age of students, teachers can incorporate food allergy into lessons about health and wellbeing, food technology or other related subject areas. This will help to educate all students about life-threatening allergies, creating a much more understanding community for children at risk of anaphylaxis.

Approaching the management of anaphylaxis in schools/childcare (click here)

Becoming a member of Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia helps you keep up to date with current information, including risk minimisation strategies and emergency care. You can also order resources at reduced cost.

Memberships for schools, preschools and childcare providers

The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) Guidelines for prevention of food anaphylactic reactions in schools, preschools and childcare

ASCIA has also developed a free onlinetraining program, ideal as a refresher course, for those who have missed the face to face training session in their school or those unable to access face to face training. The program is available to all school and childcare staff, with a certificate of completion issues after all modules and an online assessment is completed. The e training program on anaphylaxis is not meant to replace face to face training by a credible provider which is seen as best practice. For information on providers of education in your state, visit the Department of Education and Training and/or Department of Health websites.

Anaphylaxis Guidelines for schools

While Australia does not have national guidelines for managing anaphylaxis in schools, we recommend schools check the following links for state and territory guidelines.

The National Quality Framework takes effect on 1 January 2012.

National Quality Framework Update

The final version of the National Regulations is now available through the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) website (www.acecqa.gov.au).