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Community-minded people are being asked to serve on new Youth Offender Panels which are due to be launched next April to deal with juvenile offenders convicted for the first time.

Volunteers must live in the area covered by the panel and must be aged 18 or over. Panel members will be selected from a variety of ethnic and social background. No formal qualifications are needed and full training will be provided.

Phil Lloyd, manager of Manchester Youth Offending (YOT) team, said: "This is a revolutionary way of dealing with youth crime, involving local people in dealing with young offenders appearing for the first time in Youth Court. It will effectively create a 'People's Parliament' on youth crime."

Manchester YOT is working with Spurgeon's Child Care, a children's charity, to recruit, train and manage the volunteers.

Youth courts will refer first-time offenders to the Youth Offender Panel where members' will agree a contract with the young person, their family and their victim, which will explain what is expected of them.

It will also give the victim a chance to say how they have been affected and the opportunity to tell the young person how they can make amends for the damage they have done.

Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes said: "Anyone who cares about crime in their local community should consider applying to be a panel member. We want all panels to be truly representative of local communities. No one should feel that they are not qualified to do this, or that they are not the 'right' sort of person."

Norman Warner, Chairman of the Youth Justice Board, said: "Early evaluation suggests that the Youth Offending Teams in the pilot areas have responded well to the novel challenges set by the implementation of referral orders."

Would-be volunteers are being asked to ring free-phone 0800 083 3645 for further information.