West Sussex County Council Labelled "Milk Snatchers"

West Sussex County Council has been compared to "Maggie Thatcher, the original milk snatcher" after it cut funds for break-time milk for children who receive free school meals.

The move will save around £40,000 but will mean one less drink of milk per day for more than 1,200 youngsters.

They will still be offered milk or water at lunchtime.

At a meeting of the full council, Labour leader Michael Jones compared members of the cabinet to the former Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher.

She earned the less-than-flattering nickname after she abolished free milk for primary school children in 1971, when she was Secretary of State for Education and Science in the government of Edward Heath.

Warning that the increase in redundancies brought about by the pandemic would no doubt see a rise in the number of children eligible for free school meals, Mr Jones urged the council to find other ways to pay for the milk.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Nigel Jupp, cabinet member for education & skills, pointed out that the council was not legally required to provide the milk.

That only applied to milk for under 5s — a provision that would remain in place.

Mr Jupp told the meeting that the Schools Forum — a group made up of representatives from nursery, primary and secondary schools as well as academies — had agreed that the milk should no longer be funded from the Dedicated Schools Grant.

He added: 

“But if schools wish to continue supplying free school milk at break times, then they would need to fund that provision themselves from local school budgets.”

Mr Jones appealed for a commitment to reinstate the break-time milk but Mr Jupp could not give such an assurance.

At this point, Mr. Jones said Mr Jupp and the cabinet:

"...will be rightly viewed by residents of West Sussex as the true political successors to Maggie Thatcher, the original milk snatcher".

A council spokesman said 228,973 cartons of milk were supplied to primary schools and academies in 2019/20, equating to a break-time drink for 1,205 children a day.

That figure rose from 213,187 in 2018/19 but was some way lower than the 274,112 provided in 2016/17.

The spokesman advised that not all children eligible for a free school meal took up the offer.

He added:

“The addition of free milk at break time as well as lunch time for children eligible for free school meals is something the council has provided for a number of years.

“Unfortunately, due to central budget reduction to the Dedicated Schools Grant, the West Sussex Schools Forum decided it could no longer fund this additional provision from its allocation.

“Schools are encouraged to purchase the break time milk from their Pupil Premium Grant monies directly from the supplier should they need to.

“Both the free lunch time milk for children receiving free school meals and the break time milk for all under-fives remain in place.”