ELDERLY residents living in some of the city’s almshouses will see parts of their care removed, if a proposal is given the backing by charity chiefs.

St John’s Winchester is in consultation with residents and employees about removing the registered care that is provided by staff and overnight support.

Chief executive Clive Cook has said that no final decision has been made and expressed that the charity was one of three almshouse charities in the UK providing registered care. There are said to be 16,000 organisations running almshouses in the country.

Mr Cook continued: “We are reviewing because registered care is provided to fewer than 10 of 90 residents and there is a significant time and cost element involved to Care Quality Commission [CQC] compliance.

“We can spend more time with residents if we reduce the admin, compliance and reporting burden.”

According to Mr Cook the staff will be moved from a “welfare team to becoming a wellbeing team” which will enable employees to spend more time with residents.

“Some residents have raised issues around the degree of formality attached to registered care saying it gets in the way of good relationships which are essential to providing good support, we want to resolve that.

“Residents would not be left without registered care and outside agencies would come in and fill the registered care gap. We have already consulted with residents and their families around a smooth transition should this be necessary.”

The plan to remove overnight support has arisen following concerns about lone working regarding those who are providing overnight duty.

If the proposal is approved the support will be replaced by Care Line, an alarm system which alerts appropriate people.

A decision is expected to be announced on Monday.