Free milk

[Gob]

Downing Street rejects child milk scheme cut suggestion

Minister David Willetts was on-air as news about the decision broke

Plans to scrap free milk for children under five will not go ahead, Downing Street has said.

It comes after UK Health Minister Anne Milton set out the proposals in a letter to Scottish Public Health Minister Shona Robison.

Downing Street said Prime Minister David Cameron "did not like" the idea of scrapping the free milk scheme.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said the "chaos" was "shambolic" and undermined the PM's ministers.

The Nursery Milk scheme allows children under five in approved day care to receive 189ml (1/3 pint) of milk each day free of charge.

Abolition of the scheme is likely to be highly controversial, particularly as this will affect some children in low-income families”

Anne Milton Health minister

The scheme dates back to 1940, when milk was issued to pregnant women and young children to protect them against wartime food shortages.

Mrs Milton had said the milk scheme was too expensive, and the government was considering increasing the value of Healthy Start vouchers for the poorest families instead.

The health minister, who said there was no evidence the scheme improved health, wrote that the government was looking at abolishing the scheme by April 2011.

She admitted ending the scheme was "highly controversial" but said the programme did not "provide value for money in difficult times" and had "become increasingly outdated".

The cost of the scheme had almost doubled in the last five years, she said.

Running the scheme in England this year cost nearly £50m and would rise to £59m in 2011-12, she added.
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* The 1946 School Milk Act provided 1/3 pint free for every school child under 18
* Wilson's 1968 Labour government took it away from secondary school pupils
* As education minister in 1971, Margaret Thatcher withdrew it from over-7s
* Free milk for five-seven-year-olds ended in 1980
* 1.3m primary school pupils get free or subsidised milk
* The EU spent £5.8m subsidising dairy products for UK schools in 2003

The intervention left Universities Minister David Willetts floundering in a television interview on the BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, when he initially said ending the provision was on the table along with "a whole range of options" - only to be informed on air that it had been ruled out.

Later, the Department of Health said ending the scheme was an option that had been "considered" but it had "decided to rule it out".


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10904958

Damn right it should continue, these days it's more important than ever. It's possibly the only healthy thing some kids will get all day.

[The Hen]

I hated the free milk scheme that was in place here until 1973. Every summer the milk would be all warm and just ready to curdle when we got it.

Yuck. I spit on free warm summer milk Ptooey.

[Gob]

We got milk icy poles in the UK

[The Hen]

And do you reckon that is a healthy product for a child to eat? Artificial colours? Sugar added?

You need to take it straight if you are going to take it at all, ( ... said Bubba).

[Gob]

The milk was frozen in the milk bottles my love...

[The Hen]

O-o-o-o-o-h.

(Twat.)

[Scooter]

It sounded like a lot of money until I did the math and found it's less than £5 to provide each child with about 40 L of milk per year. And let's say they did redirect all the money to the poorest 10% of children, that's only about 40p per child per school day, that's not going to do much.

[loCAtek]

It beats soda machines at schools; that never should have happened.

[Gob]

I agree Scoot, free milk is a good thing and should be maintained.