COY0020
Written evidence from the School and Nursery Milk Alliance
The School and Nursery Milk Alliance is a coalition of organisations from the dairy, health and education sectors, which seeks to maximise the benefits that children get from drinking milk in schools and nurseries. The Alliance represents over 90% of the suppliers of milk to educational settings and 10,500 schools, working together to ensure that all children to have access to free or subsidised milk in educational settings.
We are pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this consultation, and to highlight the role that school milk can play in healthy diets and reducing childhood obesity.
What progress has been made with the measures contained in the plan published by the Government in August 2016?
Milk helps tackle childhood obesity
The Government’s Childhood Obesity Plan recognises that milk is a natural and healthy option for children. It contains the vitamins and minerals vital for good dental health and bone development, whilst simultaneously playing a key role in a healthy diet and in efforts against the increasing rates of childhood obesity. We want to ensure that the potential of milk is recognised in the Health & Social Care Select Committee’s advice on tackling childhood obesity.
Research published by Northumbria University in 2016 examined the evidence of the clear benefits of milk for children’s development, and found a clear positive impact on levels of obesity as a direct result of milk being consumed, in addition to improvements in dental health, cognition and bone health. The high satiety value of milk helps contribute to reduced childhood obesity and this important research found that children who drink milk are more likely to have a lower body mass than those who do not. Fat content is also low, with semi-skimmed milk containing just 1.7% fat and whole milk containing 3.9% fat. Therefore, we support the continuation of the Healthy Start Programme outlined in the Government’s Plan, which includes vouchers for young families that can be spent on milk.
As outlined in the Plan, the Department of Education and Public Health England published example early years menus in November 2017 in which they promoted milk consumption, advising that children should have “three portions of milk and dairy food each day” and that these can be part of any of the five recommended eating times. The SNMA supports the recommendations in the early years eating guidance published in November 2017 and commends the role of milk within it.
What should be the priorities for further action by the Government, given its commitment that the August 2016 plan was "the start of a conversation, rather than the final word"?
The Soft Drinks Industry Levy
Because of the health benefits of milk, drinks with 75 per cent or more milk content are currently exempt from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. The Plan outlines intentions for this to be reviewed and the scope of the exemption reduced to drinks with 95 per cent or more milk content only. We understand that the Health & Social Care Select Committee’s endorsement of this is that they perceive it to be one way of reducing sugar consumption.
However, to ensure that children do not reduce their consumption of milk as the scope of the exemption for milk-based drinks decreases, we call on the Government to implement counter-measures to encourage children to continue to consume milk, such as lesson content highlighting the origins and benefits of milk.
We support the Government’s plan to allocate some of the revenues generated from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to breakfast clubs in education settings around the UK, in which milk will be provided.
Current school milk provisions
School Food Standards - all maintained schools and new academies are required to provide children with milk at least once during the school day as part of the School Food Standards introduced in January 2015. A lack of clear accountability measures could result in schools not offering milk at all, or offering milk in a way that does not encourage children to drink it, for example through providing a jug of warm milk at lunch times, as opposed to serving milk in its optimum chilled state. We have produced a briefing for school governors, who are responsible for ensuring compliance, with advice on ensuring milk is provided and the optimum way to serve it to encourage take up.
We want to ensure that throughout the proposed review of school food and drink regulation, milk continues to be provided as a healthy drink in schools.
Further to this, the School Food Standards endorse the Eatwell Guide, published in March 2016 by the Department for Education and Public Health England. The Guide recommended a reduced role for milk and dairy products in the content of a recommended daily diet, down from 15 per cent to 8 per cent. While the guidance includes recommendations of healthier drinks for the first time, the reduced role of milk and dairy products could limit alternatives for children and young people unwilling to drink water or unsweetened beverages. We are keen to ensure that children are not confused by this apparently contradictory advice and are not discouraged from drinking milk by the Guide, especially when other advice published at the same time took a different view and advocated increasing the amount of dairy in a child’s diet. We feel there was also a lack of opportunity for the dairy industry to engage with the Eatwell Guide prior to publication to enable for any advice to be scrutinised and refuted with research and statistics.
We call for the dairy industry to be properly consulted ahead of any future changes to the Eatwell Guide.
Free School Meals – milk is provided as part of Free School Meals, which is particularly beneficial considering the Plan acknowledges, “obesity rates are highest for children from the most deprived areas and this is getting worse.” We strongly support the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme which includes milk provisions for all school children in years 1, 2 and 3, and Free School Meals for older children (including milk provision).
We believe that the more children who are entitled to free school milk, the better for their health.
EU School Milk Scheme - the main schemes which deliver milk to schools are the EU School Fruit, Vegetable and Milk Scheme and the Nursery Milk Scheme. Through the EU School Fruit, Vegetables and Milk Scheme, worth €4,219,008 to the UK in 2017/18 and administered by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), children over the age of five receive a subsidised portion of milk. The programme was known as the EU School Milk Scheme until August 2017, when it was merged with the School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme.
Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, Defra has committed to remaining in the scheme until the UK departs the EU, and has indicated that they are keen to develop a post-Brexit national programme. To ensure that children continue to enjoy the benefits of consuming milk, and in particular maintain a healthy weight, we are enthusiastic to ensure that an effective replacement is developed.
We want the Government to commit to replacing the EU School Milk Scheme with a domestic replacement post-Brexit to continue to ensure that children can enjoy the benefits of subsidised school milk.
Nursery Milk Scheme - the Nursery Milk Scheme is a UK-wide scheme through which all children under five years old who attend an early years setting for two or more hours a day are entitled to a free daily 189ml portion of milk. We support the continuation of this scheme and would like to see it applied to all children in Reception classes. At the moment the scheme applies to all under-five’s which of course is inequitable to those children who turn 5 early in the Reception year and are therefore excluded. This causes issues for teachers who don’t want to exclude children and in cases leads to the whole class not receiving milk.
We want to ensure that any future revisions to the Nursery Milk Scheme strengthen it and encourage increased participation, so that all children who are entitled to milk are able to receive the many health, educational and social benefits that it brings.