The county council said funding a family support home visiting service is “no longer the best use of taxpayers’ money” in response to a 2,000-signature petition to stop the cuts.

The Home-Start run home visiting scheme has helped hundreds of families across the county, including Watford and Three Rivers, but last month Hertfordshire County Council cabinet approved recommendations to cut the service.

Supporters of the charity, who handed a petition to the council asking it to continue funding some sort of home visiting service in the area, were told this week that children’s centres reach more than 90 per cent of under-5s in the county and the council “believes that it is no longer the best use of taxpayers’ money to continue to fund the provision of services in parents’ homes as well.”

But opposition councillors say the whole point of the service is to help the 10 per cent not in contact with the centres who are “most at risk of breakdown”.

Liberal Democrat county councillor, Sara Bedford, who represents Abbots Langley, criticised the response, which suggested Home-Start services could be accessible through children’s centres.

She said: “The county council have finally confirmed that they had no intention of retaining any form of home visiting service.

"There is no agreement that Home-Start volunteers will work in children's centres. Firstly operating from a council venue would go against Home-Start's ethos of being totally independent.

"In addition, Home-Start's clients are, for a variety of reasons, often amongst the 10 per cent of families currently not in contact with a children's centre. These are the families most at risk of breakdown, and where intensive support from a volunteer can make the most difference to the lives of parents and children, often preventing a need for more expensive intervention."

The council approved the recommendation not to re-tender the contract for the home visiting service – currently with Home-Start – when it expires in September.

The petition response said the contract provided £391,000 to support 270 families a year - £16.50 an hour of support.

But the council’s recommissioned children’s centre programme offers support from qualified staff for about £14 an hour.

The response said: “A recent evaluation of families’ key needs has shown that they can be addressed by provision already in place at children’s centres.

“The partnership agreement between children’s centres and the health visiting service means that regular local meetings identify vulnerable families and agree the appropriate support to meet their needs.

“As all families are contacted by the universal health visiting service this helps to ensure no family slips through a gap.”

Cabinet also agreed £200,000 of transitional funding will be provided to Home-Start for the charity to develop a new business model.

The response continued: “We are, therefore, confident that families in Hertfordshire will still be able to access support from Home-Start, from their local children’s centre or from other community-based services.

“The council fully recognises the contribution of the Home-Start volunteers who provide thousands of hours of their own time to support families in need.

“We want to retain the existing volunteers and our children’s centres will be encouraged to work with them to explore opportunities for continuing their volunteering work to support local families.”

The county council’s overview and scrutiny committee is reviewing the decision to cut funding to Home-Start on Monday, August 10, following a call in by members.