In last week's Budget, Gordon Brown pledged up to 100m in government funding to implement the Russell Commission's proposals for youth volunteering. Emily Rogers takes a closer look at the figures.

In his Budget speech to the House of Commons last week, Chancellor Gordon Brown outlined the Russell Commission's proposed framework for youth volunteering as a way of matching young people's "idealism and their willingness to serve" with "the needs of communities across our country and internationally".

He backed up his support for the commission's aspiration of recruiting one million volunteers by pledging up to 100m for the cause.

The availability of this money, however, depends heavily on the willingness of the private sector to invest in youth volunteering. The Government will provide 45m over three years, in annual instalments of 3m, 15m and 27m, to build the framework's enabling infrastructure, but the 55m that is needed to create volunteering opportunities must be found within the private sector.

The Government hopes 5m can be raised from business this financial year, 10m next year and 40m in 2007-08. It has pledged to match the private sector contribution, but has no obvious contingency plan should it run into difficulties.

Business will benefit

Paymaster general Dawn Primarolo says she is confident that the Government's efforts to encourage private sector involvement will pay off. Kate Stanley, head of social policy at the Institute for Public Policy Research, stresses the need for swift action by the Government to convince businesses of the value of volunteering.

Lessons can be drawn from Project Scotland, the Scottish Executive's version of the Russell Commission's full-time volunteering programme.

The executive has agreed to fully fund the plan of creating 450 full-time placements for young people from May, in a three-year commitment worth 3.5m in 2005-06 - on the understanding that private sector support can be built up over time.

The executive's hope is that private sector contributions will eventually make up half of the project's budget and it has set a target of raising 1.5m from business in the first year - several hundred thousand pounds has already been raised.

Project Scotland chief executive Iain Robertson says: "We can't all stay in the same silos or use the same approach that we had in the past. I see (the Russell Commission) focusing on an age group that has particular importance to the future of the country."

Further support totalling 5m will be provided for the UK's volunteering framework this year through the Heritage Lottery Fund's Young Roots scheme - a grants project it manages jointly with The National Youth Agency to further the involvement of 13- to 20-year-olds in promoting their heritage.

In addition, Sport England has pledged 1m a year for the next three years.

Brown's use of the term "community service" in last week's Budget speech indicates that he views youth volunteering as important for strengthening the community - a view echoed in a statement by Home Secretary Charles Clarke.

"The national youth volunteering strategy will help us identify how young people can develop their potential," says Clarke. "By nurturing the leaders of tomorrow, all of society will benefit."

The Russell Commission has avoided being prescriptive about how the 12,000 new full-time volunteering placements should be divided between the voluntary and public sectors. But Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, executive director of Community Service Volunteers, is urging the Government to follow the US example in setting aside 10 per cent of the public sector workforce for volunteers.

"Young people want to be in the fray rather than on the fringes, and the things that matter to them are health services, education and caring for people," she says.

"Most people are concerned not just with giving services, but developing their own experience and careers, and one of the places they look to is the public sector. The public sector needs the energy that our young people can bring."

Involve everyone

Ian Russell, the commission's head and chief executive of ScottishPower, says he is "delighted" at the Budget response to his proposals, but stresses the importance of coupling a multi-agency approach with young people's involvement.

Youth involvement is especially important to UK Youth Parliament co-chairman Ashley Sweetland, a member of the commission's youth advisory board, who stresses the need for financial support for organisations to enable young people to shape their own volunteering programmes.

He says: "I would encourage other policymakers to use the Russell Commission as a model of good practice for engaging young people."

The commission's work will be handed over to the Home Office's active communities directorate today (23 March) and work on implementing the framework is planned to start after the expected 5 May election.

www.russellcommission.org

THE YOUTH SECTOR AND THE BUDGET

The Chancellor also used his Budget speech to outline a plan to expand Ofsted's remit to all education and children's services inspections by 2008. Further details are due to be announced soon by Health Secretary John Reid and Education Secretary Ruth Kelly.

The separate inspectorates covering probation, prisons, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and court administration will be merged into a single criminal justice inspectorate from 2007, when inspections of youth offending teams and youth custody will be carried out by a single body. Consultation on the proposals is due to start today (23 March), outlining a number of options on how the inspectorates should be unified.

The changes are part of a plan to reduce the number of public sector inspectorates from 11 to four. The other two inspectorates will cover local services, and social care and health.

Other plans outlined include:

- A National Sports Foundation worth 27m to nurture sporting talent

- VAT relief for children's centres and children's services

- Further support, worth 25m, for targeted early intervention for young people who offend during their school years, building on initiatives including youth inclusion programmes and youth inclusion support panels.

Visit www.hm-treasury.gov.uk to access all the Budget documents.