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Milk in Schools
The Education (Milk) Act 1971
The change in the legislation meant that from the commencement of the Autumn Term, 1971 free milk would
only be supplied to:—
a) children in infant and nursery schools up to the end of the Summer Term next following the 7th birthday.
b) children in primary schools where a school medical officer certifies that he should be provided with milk at
school.
c) all children in special schools.
The parents of the children involved were informed and asked, if they considered that their child should receive
free milk for health reasons, to apply in writing to the Principal School Medical Officer. Only a small number of
parents, less than 2%, expressed this wish and following this low acceptance rate the Council decided to arrange
for a medical examination of all those children aged between 7 and 11 who no longer received school milk and in
order to do this a number of doctors were employed sessionally in the school health service. The parents were
again advised and those parents who did not wish their children to be considered for free milk on health grounds
were asked to reply in writing and only a small percentage did so.
The Department of Education and Science ruled that the certification of pupils for the supply of free school milk
on the grounds of health is a question for the professional judgement of the school medical officer and emphasised
that there is nothing in the Act which requires the medical officer to wait until there is overt sign of malnutrition
before giving a certificate. During the Autumn Term 6,308 children were examined and of these 3,900, about
62%, were given a certificate leading to the issue of a free ⅓ rd of a pint of milk a day.
Deaths of School Children