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School Milk

The Department of Health and Social Care-led Nursery Milk Scheme (NMS) allows early years childcare settings registered with OFSTED to reclaim the cost of providing 189ml (one-third of a pint) of milk to children in their care who are under the age of five and who attend the childcare setting for at least two hours per day.

While the NMS entitlement ends once pupils reach the age of five, there are other provisions in place. The School Food Standards require lower fat or lactose reduced milk to be available to children who want it during school hours. As part of our proposals for updated School Food Standards, this daily requirement is retained, with semi‑skimmed milk, skimmed milk or lactose free milk continuing to be available for drinking at least once a day during school hours.

There is also separate legislation which allows pupils who are eligible under the current targeted free school meal criteria, to continue to receive free milk at school after the age of five years old. Schools also have discretion to provide free milk to pupils who do not meet this criteria. Schools are best placed to consider the individual circumstances of their pupils in offering this provision more widely.

The government is expanding eligibility to free school meals meaning that more children are able to access milk when it is offered as part of their free meals. For these reasons, there are no current plans to extend NMS eligibility to the end of reception year.