The Russell Commission presented its report to the Chancellor Gordon Brown and Home Secretary Charles Clarke today, within which it calls for a new young people led framework to increase the quantity and quality of youth volunteering.

A National Framework for Youth Action and Engagement: Report of the Russell Commission aims to attract one million more young people into volunteering within five years. Its proposals include the creation of new opportunities for young volunteers, a new volunteering portal and wider use of the Youth Achievement Award to strengthen the link between volunteering and skills development.

The chief executive of Scottish Power, Ian Russell, was responsible for over seeing the commission. He said: “Our challenge has been to design a new national framework which will bring together all youth volunteering activities in a shared sense of purpose. By responding to the needs and aims of young volunteers themselves, it aims to make volunteering commonplace and help establish a lifelong engagement which will be to the mutual benefit of the individual, the local community and Britain as a whole.

"The private sector, the voluntary and community sector, young people themselves supported by government all have an important part to play in bringing about this shared ambition.”

Over 6,000 young people and 700 organisations from across the UK responded to the Commission’s consultation, which has been active since May last year. The full details of the report can be downloaded from www.russellcommission.org