Nearly 200 families across the county use the SPACE scheme run by the charity National Children's Homes (NCH).

But workers say more money must be found to cover rising costs.

Talks are under way between the NCH, the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust and the county's social services to keep the service operating.

A play-scheme like this is totally invaluable to us Peter Tyler

The programme holds playgroups in the school holidays to give parents a break and to allow the youngsters to make new friends in safe surroundings.

Peter Tyler, from Redruth, said when his 16-year-old son, James, who has learning difficulties, went for sessions, the whole family benefited.

He said: "We have a disabled child who displays lots of challenging behaviour when he's at home or not in a structured environment such as school.

"Being able to send him for just three days a week to a play scheme like this is totally invaluable to us."

For the past 12 years, SPACE has been paid for by Cornwall's social services, the NCH, by parents and by the Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust. But salary rises and the need to meet Ofsted standards mean costs are rising fast.

South West NCH Deputy Director Duncan Craig said the shortfall could be as much as �40,000.

He said: "Our own fundraising efforts have not matched those increases and we will need extra funding from April next year."

Cornwall's social services and the Partnership NHS Trust say they remain committed to the service and have not reduced their funding.

The trust said: "All sessions rely on support from a scheme manager, local parents and volunteers who are coordinated by the NCH. The trust is committed to maintaining the same level of funding for the programme and we're currently looking at alternative means to keep the scheme running."