Professor Adam Fox, Chairman of the National Allergy Strategy sets out the first step to the most practical way to reduce preventable harm, improve outcomes, tackle inequality, and make everyday environments safer and more inclusive.
Allergies are sometimes dismissed as “minor” health problems — an inconvenience managed with antihistamines and a bit of caution. But for millions of people across the UK, allergic disease is a daily risk, a constant source of stress, and, in the worst cases, a life-threatening emergency. It also has a ripple effect: on school attendance, family life, workplace participation, mental wellbeing, and the ability to do ordinary things many people take for granted — eating out, travelling, visiting friends, or joining in at school.
The case for a National Allergy Strategy is simple: allergic disease is common, it is rising, and yet the systems that should keep people safe — healthcare, education, food environments, workplaces and public spaces — are not consistently designed around the reality of living with allergy. A coordinated national approach is the most practical way to reduce preventable harm, improve outcomes, tackle inequality, and make everyday environments safer and more inclusive.
The scale of the problem: common conditions, serious consequences
The UK has among the highest rates of allergic disease internationally and rates continue to rise – anaphylaxis cases in A&E departments have trebled in 20 years. Allergies show up in many forms — asthma, eczema, hay fever, food allergy, drug allergy, venom allergy — and they often overlap.
Behind those trends are real people: children whose families plan every school day around risk; teenagers weighing social belonging against safety; adults who avoid work events because food is involved; and patients who struggle to access specialist advice or consistent care. Crucially, many severe reactions are preventable — but prevention requires systems that anticipate risk, not just individuals who “try harder”.
A fragmented landscape: why good intentions aren’t enough
The UK already has pockets of excellent allergy care and world-leading research. But the experience of patients is too often shaped by postcode differences, inconsistent guidance, unclear accountability, and gaps between sectors. There is a longstanding mismatch between the burden of allergic disease and the level of service provision, and recommendations from multiple reports over 20 years have not been acted on.
This is a core reason a strategy matters. Without a shared plan, improvements happen unevenly — a strong local allergy clinic here, a well-trained school cluster there — but not as a reliable, UK-wide standard. And allergy doesn’t “sit” neatly in one department. A child’s safety at school relies on education policy, staff training, and access to emergency medication. A safe meal out relies on food standards, training, enforcement and clear information. Respiratory allergies are influenced by indoor air, outdoor pollution and housing. In other words: allergy is a health issue that is also a safety issue, an inclusion issue and, increasingly, a public health issue.
What a National Allergy Strategy is designed to do
The National Allergy Strategy sets out a coordinated UK-wide approach built around five interlinked goals: national policy leadership, high-quality healthcare, effective prevention, whole-society awareness and engagement, and world-leading research that translates into real-world impact. It is intended to reduce preventable harm, improve outcomes and quality of life, and address long-standing inequalities in care and safety.
Importantly, it is also designed for the reality of devolution. Health, public health, education and aspects of environmental policy are devolved responsibilities, with different structures across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The strategy’s vision and guiding principles set out an aspiration for a UK Strategic Framework for Allergy, collaboratively developed and then implemented through nation-specific Allergy Plans that reflect local needs while sharing common standards and direction.
That is how a strategy moves beyond “another report” to something people can feel in everyday life: clear leadership, clear standards, and clear accountability — across the UK.
Professor Adam Fox
Professor Adam Fox read Medicine and Neuroscience at Cambridge University before completing his clinical training at University College, London. After specialist training in Paediatric Allergy, he was a founding consultant for specialist Allergy services at St Thomas’ Hospitals, then clinical lead for Allergy at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals when the service was recognised as an International Centre of Excellence by the World Allergy Organisation and GALEN (European Asthma & Allergy Network). He is a Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and founding Director of the KCL Allergy Academy, a postgraduate educational programme. Adam chaired the UK Department of Health National Care Pathway for Food Allergy in Childhood and was a member of the National Institute of Healthcare and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline development group for the diagnosis of food allergy in children. Expert for two of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) specialist groups, he was appointed a NICE non-specialist guideline chair in 2021. Also, senior author of the International Milk Allergy in Primary Care (iMAP) guideline, representative on the NHSE Specialist Paediatrics Clinical Reference Group, he has chaired the Paediatric Committee of the BSACI before becoming BSACI President (2018 to 2021). Now chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group, which includes jointly chairing the Expert Advisory Group for Allergy with the Department of Health & Social Care, he is lead for the National Allergy Strategy.
With two colleagues, Adam established The Food Allergy Immunotherapy Centre at Great Ormond St Hospital where he initiated the first patient, outside of the US, on Palforzia. He has published over 100 research articles, lectures internationally, makes documentaries and contributes on ITV ‘This Morning’ and BBC Morning Live. Adam is consultant paediatric allergist at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, with an award-winning private practice, Allergy London.
Follow Adam on Twitter @dradamfox
Qualifications: MA(Hons) Cantab., MSc, BS, DCH, FRCPCH, FHEAm Dip. Allergy
