Last updated: April 2026
Overview
Mealtimes are one of the most important parts of the day in your setting. From September 2025, the updated EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) introduced strengthened requirements around safer eating, allergy management, and food hygiene. This article walks you through everything you need to know: what the rules are, what you need to do before a child starts, how to create an allergy action plan, and how to keep mealtimes safe and happy for every child in your care.
Before a child starts: gathering food and allergy information
The EYFS is clear that before a child is admitted to your setting, you must obtain information about:
Any food allergies or intolerances the child has
Any special dietary requirements or preferences
Any special health requirements related to food
This information must be gathered before their first day, not after. It forms part of your duty of care and helps you prepare your setting properly from day one.
In practice: This conversation with parents should be part of your settling-in process. Use it as an opportunity to build trust and show families that their child's needs are taken seriously. |
Allergy Action Plans
What is an Allergy Action Plan?
An Allergy Action Plan (AAP) is a personalised document that sets out how to manage a specific child's allergy. It covers what to avoid, what symptoms to look out for, and exactly what to do if they have a reaction. It's a vital safety tool, especially for children with severe allergies.
Who creates the Allergy Action Plan?
This is an important point, and one that has caused some understandable confusion. The EYFS (from September 2025) requires childminders to have ongoing discussions with parents and, where appropriate, health professionals to develop allergy action plans. The key word is develop. The expectation is that you work in partnership with families and professionals, not that you create a medical document from scratch yourself.
Where a child has a formal allergy action plan produced by a medical professional (such as a GP, dietician, or hospital allergy team), for example a BSACI Allergy Action Plan, that plan must be shared with you by the parent and you must follow it in full. You should not attempt to complete a formal medical allergy action plan yourself. These must be completed by a qualified health professional.
For children with food intolerances or dietary preferences that don't require a medical AAP, you can use the child health care plan template available in the resources section of the tiney app to document the child's needs and the steps you'll take to keep them safe.
What your Allergy Action Plan should cover
Whether you're working from a medical plan provided by a health professional, or completing the child health care plan template for a less complex need, a good plan should clearly set out:
The specific allergy or intolerance and what foods or ingredients to avoid
The symptoms of a reaction and how to recognise them
What to do in an emergency, including when and how to administer any prescribed medication such as an adrenaline auto-injector (e.g. EpiPen)
Who to contact and when
Any other relevant information from the child's GP or allergy team
Keeping plans up to date
Allergy action plans must be kept up to date. A child's allergy needs can change over time. New allergies can develop, and existing ones may be managed differently as children grow. Make it a regular practice to check in with parents at least annually, or any time the child's medical situation changes.
Sharing plans with assistants
If you work with an assistant or co-minder, all allergy action plans must be shared with them and they must understand and follow them. This is not optional. From September 2025, the EYFS requires that food and health information is shared with everyone involved in preparing and handling food in your setting, and that everyone caring for the child is fully informed and prepared.
At mealtimes: your responsibilities
Checking food for every child at every meal
At each mealtime and snack time, you must be clear about who is responsible for checking that the food being provided meets all the dietary requirements for each child. If you work with an assistant, this responsibility must be explicitly agreed between you. Don't assume. For children with allergies, this means checking food labels carefully, being aware of cross-contamination risks, and never serving a food you're unsure about.
Managing food brought from home
You do not need to operate a blanket nut-free policy, but you can (and in some cases should) restrict certain ingredients in your setting depending on the needs of the children you care for. Your food from home policy is the right place to set this out clearly. tiney's food from home policy template includes allergy awareness wording that you can adapt for your setting, so families know exactly what to expect before their child starts. If a child has a food allergy or intolerance, agree a health care plan with the family and make sure this is reflected in your food from home policy.
Tip: Always ask parents to notify you of any changes to a child's dietary needs or allergies, and make this part of your normal communication with families. |
Safer eating and choking risks
From September 2025, the EYFS introduced a specific requirement for childminders to have robust systems in place for managing allergies and avoiding choking risks. This is part of the broader safer eating update to the framework.
Choking is one of the most significant food-related risks for young children. As part of your safer eating practice, you should:
Prepare and serve food in age-appropriate ways (cutting grapes in half lengthways, for example)
Always supervise children during mealtimes. Never leave a child unattended while they're eating.
Be confident in what to do if a child chokes, including back blows and abdominal thrusts where appropriate (your Paediatric First Aid training covers this)
Be aware of the highest-risk foods for young children and how to prepare them safely
If you work with an assistant: It's your responsibility to make sure they've had the relevant safer eating training and that they understand and follow your approach. From September 2025, tiney has been moving towards making it a requirement for assistants to have access to the tiney app, partly to support compliance with these requirements. |
Food hygiene
Your responsibilities
The EYFS requires that there must be an area adequately equipped to provide healthy meals, snacks, and drinks for children. You must be confident that anyone in your setting who is responsible for preparing and handling food is competent to do so.
There is no specific EYFS requirement to hold a separate food hygiene certificate. Your tiney Tummies training within Train with tiney covers the food hygiene knowledge you need and is sufficient to meet the EYFS requirement. However, some local authorities may ask for evidence of food hygiene training as part of their funding requirements, so it's worth checking with your LA if you're registered for funded hours.
Safer Food, Better Business
The EYFS references the Food Standards Agency's Safer Food, Better Business for Childminders workbook as a useful resource for meeting your food hygiene obligations. This is a free, practical guide that covers menu planning, food safety, managing food allergies, and reading food labels. You should have this as a working document in your setting. You can download it from the Food Standards Agency website: www.food.gov.uk
Registering as a food business
If you provide food or snacks to children in your care, you are required to register as a food business with your local authority. This is a legal requirement and should be in place before you start offering food. You can register for free via your local authority.
Food and your food from home policy
Your food from home policy is an important document for setting expectations with families. tiney's policy template covers:
How you manage allergies and intolerances in your setting
Your approach to food brought from home
What steps you'll take if a child has a reaction
What to do if you have concerns about the food a family is sending in
Make sure your policy is uploaded to the tiney app and shared with all current and prospective families. Review and update it at least annually, or whenever the needs of the children in your setting change.
Resources and support
Child health care plan template: available in the resources section of the tiney app. Use this to document allergy and dietary needs for children in your care.
tiney Tummies training: your food hygiene training, available in Train with tiney within the app. Covers everything you need to meet the EYFS food hygiene requirements.
Safer Eating Webinar recording: available in the CPD section of the tiney app.
Safer Food, Better Business for Childminders: free resource from the Food Standards Agency, covering food safety and allergy management in practical detail.
BSACI Allergy Action Plan: the template referenced by the EYFS for children with formal medical allergy diagnoses. This must be completed by a health professional, not the childminder. Available at bsaci.org
NHS allergy guidance: clear, parent-friendly information about common childhood allergies, available at nhs.uk
Questions?
If you're unsure about anything in this article, whether that's how to set up an allergy action plan, what to include in your food from home policy, or how to handle a specific dietary need, get in touch with us via the tiney app or at quality@tiney.co. We're always happy to help.