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Government plans to recruit young people to volunteer to help disabled people were branded as “patronising” by a disability charity this week, writes Amy Taylor.

The charity John Grooms also argues that the idea undermines and devalues the current needs of disabled people.

The government announced that it is going to expand pilot schemes where 18-year-olds receive public money if they spend their gap year doing voluntary work in their community. A Treasury spokesperson said that this could include providing home help to older and disabled people or restoring parks.

“What does the chancellor think that these gap year volunteers will be able to do? Has he consulted with any disabled people or disability organisations?” said David Newnham, director of services at John Grooms.

The charity is instead calling on the government to source ‘appropriately trained staff’ to work with and meet the care needs of disabled people.

The chancellor Gordon Brown said that he aims to get one million new young people to become volunteers over the next five years at a Volunteering Conference this week. Currently three million people aged 15-24 engage in voluntary work each year.

The results of the Russell Commission’s consultation on youth volunteering were also announced at the conference. It found that 95 per cent of young people wanted an active role in shaping their own volunteering opportunities.

The commission will deliver its report from the consultation to the government around the time of Budget 2005, expected to be in March.