VOLUNTARY groups wishing to help out Birmingham social services by looking after elderly people have been told they must wade through a 145-page application form if they want to apply for city council grants.

The Grant Funding Framework and Toolkit contains extensive information about the standards volunteers must meet, from accounting procedures to health and safety policies and the need to conduct Criminal Records Bureau checks on any staff they employ.

Council leaders insisted the form was necessary to safeguard the use of public money by bringing the grant regime under closer scrutiny.

But the new approach was slammed as a “bureaucratic nightmare” by Sir Albert Bore, leader of the council’s opposition Labour group.

Sir Albert (Lab, Ladywood) said he feared smaller organisations would be put off applying for grants by the mountain of paperwork.

He added: “You have to ask how many people are going to be prepared to plough through this?”

The application process was criticised as “being out of proportion” by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations.