Milk supplier's suspension puts delivery in disarray

According to the Department of Health, which oversees the Nursery Milk Scheme, the decision to no longer accept Scotts as an agent for it was as a result of receiving a 'number' of claims from the milk supplier, which appeared to contain errors.

The Department says that to date more than 3,000 claims from Scotts have been disputed by childcare providers.

The Government-funded scheme enables children under five, who are in an early years setting for at least two hours a day, to receive 189 ml of milk (1/3 pint) free of charge.

While a considerable number of childcare providers pay for the milk themselves and claim the money back afterwards, Scotts is one of a number of agents used by nurseries to arrange the milk deliveries, which eliminates the need for them to fill in paperwork to claim the money back.

A Department of Health spokesperson said, 'We have suspended Scotts as an agent for the Nursery Milk Scheme until further notice because of concerns over errors in claims they have made.

'No eligible child need go without free milk because we have written to childcare providers who are served by Scotts so they understand their options for how to ensure a continued supply of milk.'

An email sent to providers from Scotts said, 'We have been advised to inform you that we are unable to claim milk reimbursements on your behalf as Scotts Distribution Ltd or as Milk for Free Ltd. Unfortunately this means we will have to cease supplies with immediate effect.'

Nurseries and schools using Scotts to deliver and claim for milk on their behalf have been advised by the Nursery Milk Reimbursement Unit (NMRU) to either continue with the company and have them deliver their milk and claim reimbursement from the NMRU, buy their own milk, or transfer to another agent.

Last December, Nursery World reported that some nurseries using Scotts had been left without their free milk entitlement after the milk supplier stopped milk deliveries following discrepancies in its claims.

Nursery World attempted to contact Scotts by email and phone, but failed to receive a response. A recorded message on the milk supplier's freephone number states that all calls have been suspended.

Jon Thornes, the School and Nursery Milk Alliance's interim chairman, said, 'We do not have all the details of this particular case, so it would be inappropriate for us to comment on any steps taken by the Department of Health. It is very important that children continue to receive milk in nurseries and early years settings, which has considerable health and social benefits. The Department of Health needs to ensure that provision can be maintained to children across the country.'

Commenting on the news, John Sedgwick, managing director of Cool Milk, which also operates under the national nursery milk scheme, said affected nurseries could get in touch.

'Cool Milk is trusted by over 24,000 school, nursery and early years providers across the UK,' he said. 'Our business is built on more than 15 years' experience and we are dedicated to making the provision of free and subsidised milk as easy as possible, while promoting the important health and educational opportunities drinking milk provides.'

CASE STUDY

Natalie Johnson, who owns the Jungle Day Nursery and Cheeky Monkey Nursery in Chesterfield, had been using Scotts for three years without any problems.

However, the nurseries' milk deliveries stopped unexpectedly before Christmas and she had to start buying the milk for the nurseries herself. Between them the nurseries provide around 240 places, which meant that Mrs Johnson was left several hundred pounds out of pocket.

"At the beginning of December the deliveries stopped,' she told Nursery World. 'I contacted Scotts who said that they hadn't the money to deliver the milk because the NMRU hadn't paid them.'

Scotts said that some nurseries had not been validating the emails to confirm that they had received their milk deliveries, which meant that the NMRU was not able to reimburse them.

Both nurseries were without milk for six weeks. Mrs Johnson was told that if she put in her claims with the receipts Scotts would reimburse her. She has chased up the claims several times, but has so far not received anything towards the £600 she spent on milk for the two nurseries.

Mrs Johnson said, 'They kept promising they would pay me. In the middle of January Scotts started to deliver milk again, but I was only receiving half the order.'

She said that she complained, but Scotts insisted that she had received the full order and continued to claim for the full amount.

From this month both nurseries have switched to a new supplier, Cool Milk.