School nurses in Bradford are to get expert training on how to deal with schoolchildren who have life-threatening food allergies.

The district has been chosen to take part in a pilot project by The Anaphylaxis Campaign, a charity which helps people with severe allergies live their lives.

Bradford has been chosen as one of five pilot sites for the £14,000 programme because of its wide ethnic mix and urban population.

The training programme takes place at New Mill in Saltaire on Monday and around 20 school nurses will take part and receive a comprehensive training pack to help schools devise management plans for any severely allergic child.

The training will include how to react quickly if an allergic reaction does occur. This will include how to administer adrenaline injections - such as an Epipen which is commonly prescribed to children with a serious allergy.

David Reading, director of the Anaphylaxis Campaign said one in 70 young children in the UK had a potentially life-threatening peanut allergy with cases tripling in the last decade.

"Given this high prevalence it is probable that every school has at least one pupil who is severely food allergic," he said.

"There is published evidence that the risks to allergic pupils can be greatly reduced if school staff are trained and well-informed and have individual management plans in case of an emergency.

"The Anaphylaxis Campaign programme aims to provide high quality training to school staff so they can care more effectively for their allergic pupils."

Penny Wild, clinical lead (school nursing) for North Bradford Primary Care Trust said: "Food allergies can be serious and we welcome this training which should raise awareness of the problems they can cause and help school nurses to spot the symptoms at the earliest opportunity and cope with them in the best way possible.

"Any knowledge passed on to us by experts that helps us to support children and families is a good thing.

"We already have a very successful network in North Bradford which involves school nurses going into schools to help educate teachers and parents."

The pilot programme will also take place in Cambridge, Barnstaple, Edinburgh and Omagh during January and February with a view to launching it nationwide.