A trust in the top of the South has warned the country's most vulnerable babies may be put at risk due to Oranga Tamariki funding cuts.
Last week 1News reported the national flagship programme which provides support for families of children under two — Family Start — was set to lose $14m in funding per year from Oranga Tamaraki.
The news has been met with significant concern from members Nelson's Family Start branch, with whānau worker Shelley Wilson saying she was "horrified" to hear of the "absolutely brutal" cuts.
She said she had helped some of Nelson's most vulnerable babies for more than 23 years with the Family Start branch.
"What we're working to do is actually come up with a good blueprint for positive parenting that's going to enable the new babies to have, hopefully, a bit of a better experience in the game of life than perhaps their parents did," she said.
At Family Start Nelson three full time roles could go, but manager Rebecca Ravenscroft said it could affect more workers due to some working part time.
"We would be looking at up to the loss of six workers that would reduce our capacity to service our whānau, which would be up to around 50 whānau."
In June, Oranga Tamariki said there wasn't any more funding for translators, which limited support for migrant and refugee communities, and now funding for travel to the likes of Murchison and Picton is gone too.
It said the money given to Family Start was enough to cover rural visits and that the Nelson branch "delivered less than they were funded for in the last financial year".
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said "they are quite right to ask the questions, are those programmes and those providers actually delivering for the children in their care".
Ravenscroft disagreed with OT, saying their service was "one of the top performers in the country".
"We have a wait list, our whānau workers are on full case load, there aren't enough workers to be meeting the needs," she said.
A 2021 report found the nationwide programme significantly reduced the chance of babies dying in their first year of life, and the Government has previously said funding cuts would not impact the frontline.
"That's a blatant lie," Ravenscroft said.
Asked whether babies lives be put at risk, Wilson responded: "Yes. I hate to say it like that, I really do, but yes."
The trust's contract is not yet confirmed.
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