Family and Children's Services of the Waterloo Region is laying off more workers and cutting programs as it struggles to deal with a big deficit.

An additional 22 part-time workers are being let go at the child welfare agency in an attempt to find about $250,000 in savings.

Last month two group homes were closed and 25 jobs cut in an effort to save $1.3 million.

Executive director Alison Scott says “It’s very demoralizing for the staff, they’re very concerned that they may not get to a case soon enough or they may not be able to provide sufficient help and they worry that children may be at more risk as a result.”

The organization investigates 5,000 cases a year, serves 1,200 families and has 500 children in its care.

Programs that help children at risk of physical, sexual or emotional harm, foster parent programs and others could also be reduced due to a lack of funding.

Scott says the agency is underfunded by the province about $2.5 million this year, but must still fulfill its mandated programs.

“We’re also not giving up on early help because we know if we don’t provide early intervention then things will escalate and become more problematic and that actually costs more money.”

However, Liberal MPP John Milloy says the agency has had a 25 per cent budget increase in the past decade and a commission is looking for solutions for all the troubled provincial agencies.

“When you look at a system when there has been literally hundreds of millions of dollars put into the system and they’re still under a lot of pressure. I think we’ve got to think about two things. Obviously about the level of funding but also about, you know are there ways we can do things differently.”

Scott says the funding increase came because there were more kids in the agency’s care, but now with the funding cap, it has made all the cuts it can and has run out of options.

In fact, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies says only three of the 47 child care agencies in the province will be able to balance their books for 2012.

A decision will be made in the next two weeks about exactly which services will be reduced or cut in Waterloo Region.