STAFF could walk out again over plans for 200 redundancies at Oxfordshire’s under-threat children’s centres and early intervention hubs.

The reduction would represent about half of the workforce and union bosses warned it would be “devastating” for staff.

Oxfordshire County Council said it was part of “fundamental” changes to children’s services to help cope with growing demand and shrinking budgets.

Despite public opposition, the authority is set to stop funding all 44 children’s centres and seven hubs, and replace them with eight ‘children and family centres’ run by a new service for young people aged up to 19.

Existing children’s centres would not begin to close until October under the plan, giving community groups and district councils just over seven months to come up with cash to save them.

But Unite branch officer David Ricketts said members were “highly disappointed” and warned they could walk out again having taken industrial action on February 16 for 24 hours over the cuts.

He added: “This is going to have a devastating effect on staff, who have been committed to delivering high-quality services for families most in need.

“They now find themselves with the cloud of redundancy and anxiety hanging over them and an exodus of staff could also lead to more stressful conditions for those who stay. We will be consulting our members on what they want to do next.”

Unison branch officer Philip Wilde said members would not be balloted for a strike, adding: “It is going to be a really difficult time, for many people it will be life-changing .”

The changes were also criticised by Charlie Payne, of the Save Oxfordshire’s Children’s Centres campaign, who said: “There was universal rejection of the proposals.

“We have not even investigated the option of keeping all the children’s centres open on reduced budgets.”

But director of children’s services Jim Leivers warned councillors there was no other “realistic” option, because of rising demand for children’s social care, changes to adoption processes, the conversion of schools to academies and ongoing budget cuts of £6m.

At a county council scrutiny committee on Thursday, he said: “We simply cannot continue with the situation we have got without substantial and significant changes in the way we deliver these services.

“I am now working with social workers who are carrying case loads that are too big and too demanding.

“There is no-one sitting at this table who thinks reducing the number of children’s centres is a good thing.

“I understand people want to try to keep what we have, but the council cannot do that.”

The new service with eight centres – which would be mainly referral-only – would include some universal sessions, outreach workers and a mobile ‘playbus’ for rural areas, the committee was told.

The centres would focus on the most vulnerable families and would be in Banbury, Bicester, Didcot, Witney and Abingdon, with three more in Oxford.

It is understood discussions are under way with community groups and voluntary organisations about keeping open more than 30 existing children’s centres and early intervention hubs that are otherwise likely to close.

Earlier this week the county council agreed in its budget to set aside £1m for start-up cash for these community groups, but also retained £2m in the children’s centres’ budget.

Mr Leivers said it was “premature” to say how the money would be spent at the moment.

The cuts to children’s services are part of wider budget savings of £290m planned since 2010.

The final decision on restructuring children’s services will be made by the cabinet on Tuesday.

* County council finance bosses have warned that the local authority is heading for an overspend of £4.1m in its 2015/16 budget by the end of March.