Manitoba's child welfare agencies are preparing for radical changes coming in a few weeks that will alter their approach in dealing with families.

Starting in January, social workers will provide counselling and support to families that are struggling, in addition to intervening when families are in serious crisis or at immediate risk of losing their children.

The provincial government is introducing the new "differential response" early intervention strategies in the wake of a series of reviews following deaths of children in the system.

"We've all said for many years, if we could just get involved with families sooner and support them sooner, we wouldn't be doing this stuff at the other end of the continuum that we're doing right now," said Elsie Flette, head of the First Nations of Southern Manitoba Child and Family Services Authority.

Shirley Haynes welcomed the move. Child welfare authorities took her from her parents as a child, and she eventually lost touch with her siblings.

"Had they been involved, well, by helping my parents, helping my family, then yes, it would have made a huge difference," she told CBC News.

Flette acknowledged child welfare workers will likely face suspicion and reluctance when dealing with families.

"I think there'll be the fear," she said. "We have operated in a protection mode, right, so I think there'll be challenge for us to win the trust of the people."

Long, costly process

Sid Frankel, a professor with the University of Manitoba's social work faculty, applauded the move, but cautioned that bringing in preventive services will be a long and costly process.

"In the long run, we will see the rate of child maltreatment decrease, but not in the short run, not in the middle term, so one of the things this means is there is going to have to be additional new investment," he said.

"What new resources are going to be provided to a very stretched system so that it can begin to invest in primary prevention and secondary prevention?"

Frankel said CFS had a similar policy in the 1970s and 1980s, but financial cutbacks forced changes.

$15M earmarked for change

Jay Rogers, who runs the General Child and Family Services Authority, said agencies will approach the system carefully, with proper training for all employees.

Rogers expects child-welfare agencies will hire more employees, as well as train existing ones.

"It will involve building the capacity at our child and family services agencies to intervene earlier with the family, but in partnership with the community and mobilizing informal supports and social networks so that families at risk have sort of an ongoing network they can work with," he said.

"So it's not just [the] CFS system that's approaching families, we're going with a package of services to support families."

The province will spend $15 million next year to implement the new system, which will be phased in gradually, starting with pilot projects in a few agencies.