A RAFT of major changes are on the way to care services for vulnerable people in Worcestershire - with four day homes facing potential closure.

Your Worcester News can reveal how Worcestershire County Council is trying to strike deals to hive off more of its services for helping the elderly.

As part of the plans four day care facilities - Timberdine Nursing in Worcester, Howbury in Malvern, The Grange in Kidderminster and Smallwood Lodge in Redditch could be scrapped or handed to outside providers.

The centres cost taxpayers £800,000 a year to run, including a staffing count of 15, and their usage has been falling steadily for several years.

On a typical day the centre in Worcester has just 17 visitors.

The Malvern centre is only visited by two people daily, while the Kidderminster one averages just 22.

All new admissions have now been suspended, with the council saying it intends to start "a 12 month transition period" to find the visitors alternative care providers in the county.

Every old person who is entitled to some form of day or respite care will still get it, even if the location is elsewhere.

The council says a final decision will be made in June 2015 once solutions have been found for all the old people affected by it.

Of the four, the rehabilitation services at The Grange and Howbury would remain in operation under the proposal.

The report on it, which has been endorsed by the Conservative leadership, says there are already "multiple providers in the market for older people'e day services".

It says a large number of those providers are already part of County Hall's approved list, which has allowed more and more old people to be referred to external centres in recent years.

The changes are just the latest in an overhaul of the council's adult care department, which is battling to save £32 million by 2017.

Across Worcestershire 6,200 people get council-funded adult social care at the moment, and of that tally 5,500 use external services.

Councillor Marcus Hart, the cabinet member for health, said: "This is the start of the consultation process and external provision of adult social care is nothing new to us.

"This gives us the ability to look at the market, consider all the options and bring it back at a later date for a final decision."