A draft version of the youth green paper seen by Young People Now contains some ambitious, if not yet fully formed, proposals that will have significant implications for youth services, Connexions and the voluntary youth sector (see p3 and p8-9).

The primacy of children's trusts and the need to move quickly towards the framework and five outcomes first proposed in Every Child Matters make up the spine of the document.

But it still begs more questions than it answers. For Connexions, the future will involve significant change. Responsibility for commissioning advice and guidance will move to schools and colleges, and to children's trusts for those not attending an educational establishment. Connexions partnerships are fighting a strong rearguard action against this and are trying to show how they can integrate with trusts without being broken up (see p6).

The fear for youth services is that they already feel insufficiently involved in children's trusts, and the increased strength of trusts could mean services being marginalised. The budgets of principal youth officers will be thrown into the pot with other funding streams, under the ultimate control of directors of children's services. If youth work isn't properly represented in the process, hungry predators from education and social services will train their beady eyes on youth service money.

In terms of other initiatives in the draft green paper, such as a guaranteed minimum youth offer and a smart-card scheme, it isn't immediately clear how they would be funded, which is no doubt one reason why the document is so late.

In contrast to the youth green paper, the Russell Commission has delivered a fully costed proposal on the future of youth action and engagement - and it has done this to deadline (see p2). This was achieved amid a similar maelstrom of agendas in various government departments, especially the Home Office and Department for Education and Skills.

Russell envisages a system where the best volunteering initiatives will be able to bid to run projects on a subcontractor basis. A tricky balancing act has been achieved by not throwing the baby out with the bath water and Gordon Brown is expected to look favourably on Russell's proposals in today's Budget.

Perhaps the commission's head, Ian Russell, chief executive of ScottishPower, should be co-opted to the youth green paper team to see if he can whip that document into shape as well.