Nursery Milk Scheme

Mark Williams Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Annette Brooke]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I will not say which option I prefer, because I want to air all the issues, which I think are rather complex, and it is very important that they are all considered.

To return to my point about the variability in how children access free school milk, I have some figures from Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, three local authorities, for the percentage of under-fives accessing Cool Milk, which is the agent that provides it, so it is possible that there are other ways of getting the milk. The figures are interesting: for Dorset it is 89.8%, for Bournemouth it is 25.5% and for Poole it is 46.3%. It would be worthwhile to get all the figures from the local authorities, rather than receive the answer, “This information is not collected centrally.” Some worthwhile statistical analysis could be carried out to make sure that our most disadvantaged children actually access the milk, because that is not automatically the case.

The School and Nursery Milk Alliance raises serious concerns about the knock-on effect that changes to the nursery milk scheme could have on the over-fives scheme. It is worried that a reduced take-up among under-fives will result in fewer over-fives moving on to school milk and that, if providers are no longer supplying nurseries in other settings, it will be harder for them to supply schools as part of the over-fives milk scheme.

Another point to consider is the administration process for child-care providers. At present, child-care providers or the agent they use, such as Cool Milk, which operates in my constituency, are reimbursed for the costs of the milk after they have purchased it. Whatever scheme is put in place must not put more of a burden on child-care providers, but be simple and easy to use so that nurseries and other settings are not put off taking part in the scheme.

We must consider how the milk will be delivered to the care providers. It is, of course, more expensive to deliver to nurseries in small and rural areas and to childminders working in difficult to access places.

[Mr Mark Williams (Ceredigion) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. As has been said, the issue’s ramifications go much wider than England. On rurality, I represent Ceredigion and she also represents a rural constituency, and there are particular challenges when nurseries and child-care providers are based in a rural setting, where the operational costs are that much greater than in urban areas. The Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Mark Lazarowicz) asked my hon. Friend whether she would support option 2. If she went along with that and a cap system, I would hope that she would ask for guarantees that the operational costs could be factored in so that rural people were not put at a disadvantage.

[Annette Brooke]

It is important that we take on board the additional costs in rural areas, which would become highly relevant if a capping system were to be introduced. I agree with the points that have just been made.

In any new system, it is important that nurseries and child-care settings are still able to make a choice about where they procure the milk. It is important that a supplier can ensure a suitable delivery time so that the quality of the milk remains high. In many settings the location of the milk provider will be important, with nurseries choosing a local, trusted supplier.

It is also important, when considering how best to progress and how to ensure best value for money, that we consider the requirements of the child-care providers. The consultation document repeatedly refers to pints of milk, but it must be remembered that children receive a third of a pint a day. Many settings do not have facilities to wash drinking cups, so they require milk to be supplied in single-serve packaging, and many would not be able to serve children milk if it was not delivered in those sizes, which is another cost factor. It is also important to consider special types of milk, such as kosher milk, that might be needed for religious or cultural reasons or, indeed, as an alternative if children have an allergy. I was particularly impressed with the cartons that I saw on my school visit on world school milk day, because they were really attractive and it literally was cool to drink milk.

I have received representations from a number of different organisations from the child-care and dairy industries. Although they understand why the Department is conducting a review, many of them, such as the School and Nursery Milk Alliance, are concerned that, while the Government are committed to protecting the entitlement of children to milk in early-years settings, proposed changes to the scheme could reduce the actual number of children receiving the milk. It is important that we maximise the number of children taking up the offer.

I know that the organisations will have submitted detailed responses to the consultation, so I just want to touch briefly on the different options and some of their pros and cons. Under option 3—the e-voucher system—child-care providers would no longer have to pay for milk and then claim reimbursement. They would instead be credited with a prospective monthly payment equal to the number of pints required multiplied by a fixed reimbursement rate, which would be set at an average market price per pint. The National Day Nurseries Association has voiced concerns that this kind of scheme might place additional administrative responsibility on providers. I ask the Minister to consider that, particularly given the Government’s commitment to reducing the burden on early-years settings that is currently being consulted on by the Department for Education.

Having garnered opinions, it seems that option 4—direct supply—is least favoured by those in the industry. Anticipated problems that have been raised with me include the cost of the operation; the fact that a national tender may quickly become uneconomic because while the supply of larger settings may be relatively straightforward, cost is quickly added when significant numbers of smaller, local, rural deliveries are required; denial of choice; the impact on local suppliers and dairy farmers; and the impact on the quality of the milk—I have heard time and again about the importance of fresh rather than UHT milk being supplied.

Bodies such as Dairy UK, Dairy Crest and the National Day Nurseries Association favour option 2—capping the price paid for milk—but they are concerned that a cap at the levels suggested by the Department might mean that many settings are not able to afford to have milk delivered at that price and so will opt out of the scheme, meaning that fewer children receive their milk. Dairy UK has suggested a single price cap in the region of 65p to 69p per pint, which it hopes would allow for the delivery of one-third of a pint packages of milk to smaller, rural and remote settings.

I am very pleased that the Government are committed to keeping free milk for all children under five years old in a day-care or early-years setting for two or more hours a day. I understand the need for a review of the scheme to ensure value for money, and I look forward to reading the Government response to the consultation, which I am sure will have taken into account a number of the concerns that have been raised in the House today. I urge the Minister to use this review as an opportunity to widen participation in the scheme so that more eligible children receive the milk to which they are entitled. I strongly believe that everyone who is entitled to the milk and wants it should be able to have it, as that is beneficial to the child and ultimately to the nation, with perhaps fewer costs and burdens on the NHS. As a final request to the Minister, will he say whether any European Union money or subsidies would be available to support this excellent scheme?