The New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET) will cancel its Parents as Teachers program (PATS) across the state next year.

The program, offered at Bowen Public School and seven other locations in NSW, is for families with children aged up to three.

It focuses on child development and parental education and helps parents establish links with community-based services including community health and early intervention programs.

As many as 100 families are enrolled in the program in Orange and more than 1000 families have used the service in its 16 year history.

The program, which is run by parenting consultant Ros Bench, is available to all local families.

Parents enrolled in PATS say there is no comparable service operating in Orange and they want the program to keep running.

“I’ve never come across any other program like this,” parent Beate Hahn said. “We get educated as parents, you can get advice and ask questions on any issue you have.”

Timothy Hanlon, who recently moved to Orange, said the program provided valuable assistance while he was getting to know the community and what services were available for his daughter Victoria.

“It became a source of instant information, be it in relation to GPs or good parks to go to,” he said.

A DET spokesperson said the decision to cancel the program was due to the improvement in parenting services available through other government agencies such as NSW Health and the NSW Department of Community Services.

The spokesperson said its parents as teacher positions would be upgraded to early childhood senior education officers, who would work in the DET’s early childhood programs in schools.

“The Parents as Teachers positions will not be lost, with the new positions having a broader role in early childhood across the region rather than only being confined to parenting support,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson cited the triple P Positive Parenting Program, Schools as Community Centre at Glenroi and parenting programs delivered through the Benevolent Society as examples of similar programs in Orange.

But parents enrolled in PATS disagreed, saying those services were either targeted at children aged five and over or at families who had been identified as being at risk.

“They’re not the same,” parent Melissa Macdouall said. “PATS is a universal program that is about helping all families.”

The parents say they are prepared to fight to keep PATS operational and are seeking funding to cover the costs of running the program.

The DET did not provide information on the cost of operating PATS each year.