Homelessness organisations have condemned plans to cut street outreach teams for rough sleepers in Westminster, central London, saying it will leave vulnerable people without support.

According to council plans, small "street rescue" teams will refer rough sleepers to day centres to access advice rather than being provided with a street service. But critics are concerned this may result in a "scoop and run" service that will not engage the hardest to reach.

A well-placed source told Community Care: "We are concerned that rough sleepers will not get any proper assessment on the streets, and those barred from day centres or too intimidated to go to them will be left without a service.

"Outreach teams are being abolished because they are seen as an incentive for people to remain on the streets, but there is a significant population who are going to lose out. This is just another example of a persistent culture of short-term thinking where rough sleepers are concerned."

The source accused Westminster of "throwing away" all the money invested by the Rough Sleepers Unit to set up the existing outreach teams in 1999. Teams were created across London with a £3.8m budget, under the direction of the then homelessness tsar Louise Casey. Westminster has the highest number of rough sleepers in Britain, with the most recent government figures showing 175 people.

Mike Tristam, director of homelessness charity the Simon Community echoed the concerns. He warned the changes would lead to greater exclusion of vulnerable people.

"We cannot abandon people simply because they do not want to, or cannot, access day centres," he said.

He also expressed concerns that the "street rescue" teams would not be trained to deal with the complex needs of rough sleepers, providing a "poor alternative" to the current outreach service.

Westminster insisted the changes were part of a "long-agreed strategy" to help get rough sleepers off the streets and a response to the "changing needs of the street culture". It has invited day centres to bid to run the new service from March next year, when the outreach teams will be disbanded.

The council denied that the strategy was part of a "cost-cutting" exercise.