COUNCILLORS have agreed to help finance a vital role within local schools which supports families and children.

The Parent and Family Support Adviser (PFSA) works with schools and families to provide early, preventative support and to help address issues affecting a child’s wellbeing, attendance, behaviour and engagement in learning.

There has been a concern that Wellington was at risk of losing its PFSA and councillors agreed at Wellington Town Council’s monthly meeting on June 1 to make sure that this does not happen.

The council agreed to approve a one-off contribution of about £7,000 for the 2026-27 academic year to maintain the PSFA role in Wellington.

“Without this support, there is a risk that PFSA capacity will reduce, limiting early help provision for children and families at a time of increasing need,” said the council’s chief executive Dave Farrow.

“The proposed funding would provide short-term stability while schools and the council review longer-term arrangements for delivering and funding this support on a sustainable basis.”

Cllr Janet Lloyd said: “I’m totally supportive of this. We once had four PSFAs back in the day and then that has been dribbled down to one.”

Cllr Sean Pringle-Kosikowsky added: “It’s very useful to speak to someone face to face like a PFSA. I think we have gone too far the other way now and using Google for answers!”

There is just one full-time PFSA in Wellington who supports all the schools in the town. Funding for the role is currently allocated by Somerset Council through its central schools budget using a formula based primarily on pupil numbers.

The town council’s community committee heard last month that a changes in central Government funding would require Somerset Council to reduce funding to schools for PFSA roles by about 30 per cent in 2026-27 and then a further 20 per cent in each subsequent academic year.

Mr Farrow said: “We have had discussions with headteachers in Wellington and these indicate that, when the individual school allocations are combined, the funding shortfall for academic year 2026-27 will be about £7,000.”

Not all of the schools have said they would be able to realign budgets to meet the shortfall.

He said that effective early help was a key component of the council’s existing Cradle to Career and Best Start in Family Life projects.

The current PFSA was managing a caseload of about 30 cases of “varying complexity” and often involve multiple over-lapping issues linked to attendance, wellbeing, behaviour, family circumstances and access to wider support services.

“It is considered that this caseload is high and that the breadth and complexity of need being addressed by a single post warrants review,” said Mr Farrow.

It was proposed the town council used the family support strand of the Cradle to Career funding already allocated by the authority to bridge the PFSA shortfall for 2026-27.

“This would provide time for schools and the council to review existing early help arrangements and to consider what we can do in the future to help funding on a sustainable basis,” said Mr Farrow.