VITAL support for families is set to be restored in Witney following a cash injection from the county council.

It is hoped the new vision will see the community pull together to support children and young people with a ‘unique’ new service to fill the void left by the town's children's centre, which was closed in March.

A group comprising the town’s churches, members of the town council and youth charity Base 33 last week received £30,000 from Oxfordshire County Council's transition fund.

The £1m fund was set up after the county council pulled funding from 33 of 41 children's centres to save money.

Community groups were then invited to bid for some of the cash to get services up and running again.

The cash will be used to invest in a coordinator linking resources together for an efficient model of support.

Wendy Dawson is the chief executive officer of Base 33, a charity that already works with young people aged between 13 and 24.

She said the charity was beginning to ‘crumble’ as a result of additional pressures since the loss of the children’s centre.

She said: “We’ve had an increase in young parents as a direct result of the children’s centre closing but we haven’t got the facilities to properly deal with it.

"We don’t have anywhere appropriate where people can change babies' nappies.

“What we need is some joined-up thinking so that we can share knowledge and skills and do a better job than what was there before.

"It’s about joining up the community – making it intergenerational, interfaith and for the benefit of children, young people and adults.

“We will implement a strategic plan fairly quickly because we need to get this in place.

"Places like Base are crumbling at the expense of young people.”

Ms Dawson said that children’s centre services, like those that were in place before, are vital for parents who may not feel accepted at other groups.

She continued: “There are parents who can’t pay for the other groups, and if they attended the paid ones they may feel embarrassed because they don’t have those social skills.

“We work with everyone.”

The money will be used to employ a coordinator to oversee all care offered to children, young people and adults.

Whoever fills the role would work in a central location and continue to operate with the churches, council and Base 33 in a joined-up approach to provision of care.

Ms Dawson said the role had the potential to be filled by anybody, and that they would act as an ‘octopus’ linking all the services together to boost efficiency and avoid duplication.

Witney town councillor Laura Price, who is involved in the project, said: “I'm delighted that the funding has been approved and although it can't replace what we had, it does give us an exciting opportunity to build something unique to our community.

“I'm looking forward to the group recruiting a coordinator and then working with different volunteers, groups and venues to create an exciting timetable of activities that will support children and families in Witney.”

The county council's cabinet approved transition funding for other community groups, such as Donnington Doorstep, Abingdon Carousel and Grove Parish Church, to continue running children's services.

It came after county council funding for 31 children’s centres and two of seven early intervention hubs in the county came to an end in April.

Action for Children’s contract to run the town's children’s centre finished in March, putting an end to its many sessions supporting young people in the area.