Guidance

Care to Learn and vulnerable bursary claims: guidance for providers

Published 7 September 2026

Applies to England

This guidance is for settings who need to claim funding for eligible students in the 2026 to 2027 academic year, for:

• Care to Learn (C2L)
• the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups (VB)

You should read this guidance before using the forms.

Care to Learn

The C2L scheme provides funding for childcare to help young parents (defined as those aged under 20 years old at the start of their programme) continue in education after the birth of a child.

The C2L  conditions of grant funding has more information.

16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups (VB) provides financial support to help students overcome the specific financial barriers to participation they face, so they can remain in education.

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund provider guide has more information.

Who must submit the claim 

Before using the forms, find out who is responsible for submitting the claim. 

Eligible institutions should submit their own claim using the organisation connected to their DfE Sign-in account. 

If you are a maintained special school, including a community special or foundation special school, your local authority must submit the VB claim for you. Contact your local authority to help.  

Local authorities must submit claims for eligible students they have placed in independent provision where the student has a financial need.

When to apply

There are 3 claim windows to submit forms in the 2026 to 2027 academic year.

Claim window	Purpose	Dates	Payment
1	Use this window to submit student information and costs	7 September to 11 November 2026	February 2027 (March for academies)
2	Use this window to provide student information and costs that you have not previously	4 January to 10 February 2027	April 2027 (May for academies)
3	Use this window to provide student information and costs that you have not previously submitted. For C2L only, provide mandatory year-end reconciliation	17 May to 30 June 2027	September 2027  (October for academies)

If you get C2L funding in window 1 or 2, you must submit end-of-year reconciliation data in window 3. If you do not, we will recover the funding in full. There is no reconciliation for the vulnerable bursary.

Autumn deadline 

You must submit your forms by 5pm on Wednesday 11 November 2026.

We cannot grant extensions.

Before you start  

You must have an active DfE Sign-in account  that is linked to your organisation.

If you have not used DfE Sign-in before, you will need to create an account.

Follow our instructions if you need help with DfE Sign-in.

You must also:  

• have the authority to submit claims on behalf of your organisation 
• use the digital form to submit your claim 
• submit separate forms if claiming both C2L and VB funding 
• gather all student and funding information before starting

For C2L claims, you should have the total: 

• number of students 
• childcare costs 
• registration fees 
• travel costs 
• summer retainer costs

For VB claims, you should have the total number of students, including any zero bursary students. You should also have the student numbers and funding amounts for:  

• in care 
• care leavers 
• in receipt of Income Support or Universal Credit (UC)
• in receipt of Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payments, and Employment and Support Allowance or UC

DfE Sign-in

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

Follow the below steps to access the form using your DfE Sign-in account:

1. Access the digital form. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.

2. If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled on your account, you will need to enter a verification code to login. To send the verification email with the code you need to click on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity page’ you were directed to after entering your email and password.

3. After clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ you will progress to the next page ‘Enter code’. Copy the code from the verification email and paste it into the box. Then select ‘Verify’.

4. Choose the organisation that you are completing the form for. This is only required if your account is linked to several organisations.

5. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address, and unique identifier of the local authority, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into the form.

6. If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page.

7. If you believe these details are incorrect, contact us through the customer help portal and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission.

To complete the form, your DfE sign-in account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for.

You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in. It is used only for authentication.

If you experience any issues at this initial stage, seek direct help from our dedicated DfE Sign-in help service where you will be able to request further assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘other.’

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

You will need to create one by completing these steps:

1. Access DfE Sign-in page and select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account.’ On the next page, select ‘No account? Create one.’

2. Enter your name and email address. You must use a valid business email address that contains your name. We are unable to accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’. You cannot use a personal email address.

3. We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.

4. Create a memorable password that is a minimum of 8 characters and contains 3 out of lowercase characters, uppercase characters, numbers and symbols. Enter your given name and surname.

5. Sign in using your new credentials. Request your multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification email by clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the verify your identity page.

6. We will send you an MFA email to verify your identity. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.

7. Follow the next step instructions outlined in ‘Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account’ below.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account to complete the form.

You may have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually a senior person, such as a manager.

For security reasons, you will need authorisation from one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account

To add a new organisation to your DfE Sign-in account, follow steps 1 to 6 below:

1. Log in to your DfE Sign-in account.

2. Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.

3. Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.

4. Enter the name of the organisation you wish to add.

5. Select the organisation.

6. Select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to the approvers of your organisation. If you do not already have an approver your request will be actioned by the DfE Sign-in support team.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account to complete the form.

If you need more help with DfE Sign-in

Use our DfE Sign-in help service to request assistance. When you raise a support request, select ‘other’.

If you are having problems accessing the form collection, you can contact us through our customer help portal.

How to use the forms  

Access the funding claim form  and select ‘Start now’.

After you enter the form using the DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your organisation, you can access the funding forms available for your organisation:

• Care to Learn (C2L) – autumn collection window for academic year 2026 to 2027 
• 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups (VB) – autumn collection window for academic year 2026 to 2027

Follow the instructions on:

• how to fill in the C2L form
• how to fill in the VB form

You can complete C2L and VB forms in any order.

You can leave and return later before submitting. Use ‘save and continue’ to do this.

Submitting and amending the form

After you submit the form you will get a confirmation email.  

You must:  

• download and keep the PDF copy for your auditable records – the download link will expire after 6 months 
• make a note of your submission reference number, as it is not included in the confirmation email  

You can amend and resubmit forms up to the submission deadline. We will only use your latest submission, so you must be sure it is accurate and complete.

Amending a submission 

You can amend and resubmit claims until 5pm on Wednesday 11 November 2026. 

When you resubmit: 

• you will get a new reference number
• the latest version replaces all previous submissions

Your final submission must include all students and all funding being claimed.  

We cannot grant extensions.

Feedback 

We welcome feedback on the guidance, and feedback on the digital forms, to help improve the user experience.