A group of teenagers in care are to be recruited to help advise Ministers on how to tackle child poverty, truancy and drug abuse among young people.

A report in this week's The Independent on Sunday says the the panel of teenage advisers will be asked to draw on their own experiences to tell ministers how to prevent children breaking the law and under-achieving at school and work.

Paul Boateng, the new Minister for Young People, said Government policies had failed in the past because young people had not been given a voice.

The children and teenagers will be recruited from youth groups and school councils to form regional advisory groups to act as "sounding boards" for a national panel.

Mr Boateng told the paper: "They will be drawn from urban and rural areas and will be young people in care and in education. They are not necessarily going to be high achievers - some of them will have had real problems and experience of care. Others will be young people who are just young people."

He also revealed that he may put pressure on the Department of Health to create a Children's Commissioner for England following criticism from charities and campaigners that the Government was blocking plans for the UK to follow the lead in set in Wales where a commissioner post has already been created.

"I'm watching the Welsh experience very closely," Mr Boateng told paper.