Residents will be given a role in deciding how children should be protected from sex offenders released back into the community.

Home Secretary David Blunkett is poised to announce how members of the public would be selected to serve on new Multi Agency Public Protection (Mapp) panels.

The move is in response to the murder and abduction of eight-year-old Sarah Payne by Roy Whiting in July 2000.

Whiting killed the schoolgirl and dumped her body near Pulborough following a jail term for a previous sex attack on a nine-year-old girl in 1995.

Since her death, there has been public pressure for a Sarah's Law to give the public the right to know details of the 18,000 names on the Sex Offenders Register.

The Home Office said it was likely two people would be given special training to work alongside police and probation services on Sussex's panel.

The two workers would help decide how dangerous sexual and violent offenders living in their neighbourhoods are monitored to prevent them attacking children.

Adverts will be placed by the Home Office later this month in search of applicants with a record in community work and an understanding of child protection issues.

Mr Blunkett wants the lay members of the panels to act as watchdogs by examining the way probation and police officers work and handle sensitive cases.

However, they would not be allowed to know the real or assumed identities of sex offenders or their addresses.

Mr Blunkett said: "This is an important way of ensuring the local area has a voice and a representative in the process who can help agree the best way to manage an offender's presence in the community."

The Home Secretary said he is introducing "seven-eighths" of a Sarah's Law by tightening up the Sex Offenders Register and giving the police power to stop offenders moving around the country.