Changes to nursery milk scheme delayed
By Rachel Lawler
The planned changes to the Nursery Milk Scheme will not come info effect on 1 August 2022 as planned, the Department for Health and Social Care has .
Instead, the department now says that the changes will come into force sometime in 2023. While it has not specified a timeframe, it does says that providers will be given 鈥渁dequate notice鈥 ahead of the changes.
The department says that it is developing a 鈥減ackage of guidance and support tools鈥 to help providers meet the requirements.
The update comes shortly after the Alliance wrote to minister Maggie Thrope about planned changes to the scheme, which would have seen providers asked to share redacted copies of their attendance registers along with notes on any children unexpectedly absent from settings.
Neil Leitch, CEO of the Alliance, said: 鈥淲hile the news that changes to the Nursery Milk Scheme have been delayed until next year may offer some limited comfort to providers, the fact remains that the proposed extra requirements for settings claiming under the scheme are both unworkable and unnecessary.
鈥淣ot only is the early years sector is in the midst of a severe recruitment and retention crisis but we know from our own research that that excessive paperwork and administrative requirements are the most commonly-cited causes of stress among early educators. Clearly then, these changes are the very last thing the sector needs at such a challenging time.
鈥淭he government should be focusing on supporting early years professionals, not adding to their already sky-high workloads. We urge the Department for Health to reverse these plans and to instead work with the sector to address any concerns about the way the scheme is currently operating.鈥
The Alliance has been in touch with the DHSC, and will continue to argue for these changes to be scrapped altogether.
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