Young parents will claim childcare bursary payments direct from their college from next year after the government scrapped a burdensome external support service.
Revised Education and Skills Funding Agency rules state colleges will be responsible for managing Care to Learn payments for the 2025/26 academic year.
Since 2013/14 the bursary scheme has funded payments to childcare providers to help parents aged under 20 attend school or college.
Young parents, childcare providers and education providers had to use the student bursary support service (SBSS), an external portal used to submit applications, claim funding and make payments.
Instead of filing claims through the SBSS, young parents will now complete applications for financial help with childcare with their education provider, which will then determine eligibility, submit claims and make payments to childcare providers.
Lisa Humphries, chair of the National Association for Managers of Students Services, said SBSS’ removal was a “positive move forward” as bursary teams were burdened with “additional steps” of completing updates on the portal.
Under the old system, young parents would submit applications to the SBSS and give their education provider a copy of the child’s birth certificate and a letter confirming receipt of child benefits.
The SBSS would then contact the institution to confirm the students’ course details and the childcare provider for confirmation services were being provided.
The National Union of Students welcomed the change after previously calling for a simplification of the system.
Qasim Hussain, NUS vice president for further education, said childcare was a “huge barrier to education” for student parents.
He added: “We hope this announcement will make it much easier for those who need it to access childcare funding, and that colleges have the adequate resources to carry this out.”
Demand falls 85%
Official data up to 2022/23 shows take-up of the bursary has fallen consistently during the last decade, with demand down 85 per cent from 2013/14 levels when £24.5 million was claimed.
Just 841 payments were made in 2022/23, a total payout of nearly £3.8 million.
The government has chalked the decline down to a fall in demand caused by drops in teenage pregnancy rates and demographic changes. Latest data from the Office for National Statistics reports teen pregnancy in England and Wales has more than halved since 2011.
But the NUS also blamed the trend on complexities around claiming the cash.
Last year the ESFA increased the maximum amount available for parents from £160 per child per week to £180, or an increase from £175 per week to £195 per week in London.
The ESFA acknowledged the upcoming process change would add extra admin to college student support services so will pay 5 per cent on top of each amount claimed per student.
Humphries said the move gives “parity” with all other bursary schemes that colleges already handle, such as the 16 to 19 bursary fund for vulnerable groups.
She said: “Care to learn is the only part of bursary schemes that is not administered locally by colleges and it is a small number of students who apply from each college. It makes sense to move it to being supported by bursary teams in each college.”
Good article. It’s great to see this. Users of PayMyStudent will easily be able to add this method of funding to their system with no extra cost and generally not much extra burden so the extra 5% will really help the college too. Great see that the government are happy that the colleges can look after their own funding as well.