The care leavers' bursary goes to the apprentice, not the employer
A payment that only reaches the people it is meant for if somebody tells them it exists.
Apprentices who have been in the care of their local authority can receive a bursary of £3,000. Unlike the additional payments, it goes directly to the apprentice rather than to the employer or provider, and it is separate from — not instead of — the £1,000 additional payment the employer and provider receive for the same apprentice.
The whole mechanism depends on declaration. An apprentice who does not know the bursary exists, or does not realise their circumstances count, will not declare their status and will not receive it. This is why the 2026/27 rules added a clarification about what information providers must give apprentices, specifically to reduce the risk that providers do not share everything an apprentice needs in order to declare.
Care experience is also one of the two routes by which someone aged 19 to 24 attracts the £1,000 additional payment, and one of the two exceptions to the Level 7 age restriction — a 22 to 24 year old who has been in care remains eligible for a Level 7 apprenticeship when others of the same age do not.
What follows: the practical task is making declaration easy and unembarrassing. That means clear information at enrolment rather than a box buried in a form, wording that covers the range of care arrangements people may not think of as care, and an offer to discuss it privately. For an apprentice on a Level 2 wage, £3,000 is not a marginal sum.