JOBS could be lost from a successful pilot project being pioneered by Dorset Council – unless the new Government agrees to continue the funding.

The county has been given almost £5million to pilot new ways of working with families and children, one of three pilot projects in the country.

Less than a year in the scheme is said to be producing good results with families reporting that they feel more involved and the hope of its work reducing the number of children needing to come under council care in the long-term.

But councillors have been told that unless the Labour government buys into the project, which was started by the last Conservative Government, it could result in some difficult decisions over jobs in Dorset.

The funding is set to continue only until March 2025.

Executive director for children's services Paul Dempsey told councillors that good as the project is, there is no guarantee that it can continue without additional funding into the 2025/26 financial year.

Portfolio holder for the service, Weymouth Green councillor Clare Sutton told a committee reviewing progress of the 'Families First' pathfinder: "This has been a massive compliment to Dorset's children's services and it has yielded massive benefits already in terms of prevention and early intervention .. the really big question is whether the funding will continue… If the funding doesn't continue there will be some very serious conversations about staffing across children's services; but even if it does come to that, that we have to lose some posts, what it will have done is transform areas of children's services delivery which is generating savings across the system," she said.

Mr Dempsey said there were indications that the Government was supportive, but as yet no promise of continuing funding.

The project arose out of a Government report which warned that, nationally, the number of children being taken into care would continue to rise from 80,000 to 100,000, unless services were transformed.

Dorset was chosen as one of the pathfinder projects because it was already starting to work on early interventions along with partners including the health services, schools and the police.

Mr Dempsey said the project also sought to tap into the immediate and wider family, sometimes including family friends, when challenges were beginning to arise.

"It has been going well and we've had positive feedback from family members…and our own workers," said Mr Dempsey.

Said People and Health Overview Committee chair Cllr Beryl Ezzard: "This is a fantastic chance that Dorset has got and we've made a really good start – hopefully this Government will support more funding into the future."

Mr Dempsey said that although the data had yet to be analysed there were indications that while, nationally the number of children going into care was rising by 10 per cent a year, in Dorset it had gone down by a similar figure.

Cllr Jon Orrell, said that as a GP with 40 years of experience working with families he welcomed the new, positive, collaborative way of working.

"This change of approach is really great and warmly welcomed. It might take years but it is good to do and worthwhile," he said.

Dorset Council says that it expects that by putting families first at an early stage and working closely with other partners, including health organisations, there will be fewer children on child protection plans, fewer children in care and more children will be supported to stay with their birth families.

Said Cllr Sutton: "It's early days yet as those further changes have only been in place since the summer, but families are already telling us that they feel much more in control of shaping their own plans to make sure their children are well cared for.

"They meet with the same people as their need for support increases or decreases, which means they don't have to keep telling their story – something families told us they didn't like about the previous system.

"Sometimes people will not even need to be involved directly with children's services to get that support as our Family Hubs can offer real help and advice to people directly in their communities."

The new way of working has been split into four areas:

• Family Help – teams that are based locally and can help families with tailored support in a wide range of needs

• Child protection – a dedicated and skilled team that works with family help and other agencies to protect children who are suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm

• Family networks – making greater use of the network that each family has and aiming to keep more children living at home or with someone they already know

• Safeguarding partners – making sure that current safeguarding partners are brought along with any changes and that education is included as the fourth safeguarding partner.