Hundreds of thousands of pounds of funding cuts to a family support service has been approved by Herts County Council.

Councillors voted to stop funding HomeStart’s home-visiting service to families struggling with children under five.

The charity has a branch at the Borehamwood and Elstree Children's Centre, in Shakespeare Drive, Borehamwood.

The move, which is expected to make savings of £390,000 a year, was agreed by the council’s children services panel and approved by a majority vote of 39 to 27 county councillors today.

HomeStart scheme manager Emma Power presented a petition signed by more than 2,000 people to “stop Hertfordshire from losing this vital service”.

The petition asked the council to: “Ensure that the service currently provided by HomeStart meets the needs of families facing social isolation, mental health problems, disabilities and other issues that prevent them accessing other statutory services is tendered openly in 2015.

“County are currently recommending that no funding is made available for a home-visiting service meaning many families in Hertfordshire will go unsupported.

“The recommendation is that the families currently supported by HomeStart and HomeStart volunteers will be absorbed by current statutory services, such as children centres and health visitors who are already working to full capacity.”

Council bosses believe the county’s 84 children’s centres will be able to support the 395 families who use the service.

Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors made motions against the “short-sighted” move.

In one motion, Lib Dem councillor Mark Watkin said socially-isolated families do not engage with children's centres and that the plan to replace HomeStart's services with services provided by the reorganised children's centres will fail because they have "neither the resource nor the time to provide the same quality of service".

He said: “Far from saving the £390,000 stated, the direct cost to children's centres will be substantial and will result in further significant costs to the county as these families and their offspring reappear with serious issues requiring direct engagement by professionals.”

In a second motion, Labour councillor Nigel Bell called on the cabinet to “reverse their short-sighted decision”.

He said: “HomeStart is a unique organisation that uses the skills, trust and training of its volunteers to reach out and help those hard to reach families that often do not access children’s centres or other agencies.

“The idea that children’s centres will be able to take on this unique volunteering work without the extra resources needed is misplaced and will have more long-term consequences for children’s services spending in the county.

“We call on the cabinet to urgently work with the nine HomeStart organisations throughout the county to look at all methods to continue HomeStart’s vital home-visiting service and outreach work in delivering their effective and value for money service.”

But Cllr Richard Roberts, cabinet member for children’s services, said a home-visiting service for a small number of families "cannot be justified".

He moved that the council provided discretionary funding of £200,000 to HomeStart to ensure families currently within the programme could receive their nine-months’ support and also to help the organisation and its volunteers through the transition.

In his motion, he said: “Council recognises that the landscape of support for families has developed during the term of the current contract, particularly with children centres now at the heart of our communities, with more than 90 per cent registration of the 76,000 under fives and with the increase in health visitors, nursery places and child care support

“In view of these developments, it accepts that funding for a separate, non-needs based home-visiting service for a small number of families can no longer be justified.”