Member

I appreciate the noble Baroness’s concern about ensuring that children looked after by childminders are entitled to free milk through the nursery milk scheme. As she said, currently only children looked after by childminders registered with Ofsted are eligible, which excludes a small cohort. The Government agree with the noble Baroness that this group should not be excluded and intend to extend eligibility so that children receiving care from childminders registered with childminder agencies are also entitled to free nursery milk. However, the amendment cites inaccurate powers, meaning that it would not achieve its objective. It is a fair challenge that we make progress on this. The Department of Health and Social Care is committed to making this change as soon as practicable, and we will aim to do so within six months if parliamentary time allows. I am sure that the noble Baroness will hold us to account for that.