Become a Member
Life

Interview: Simon Morris

Tough times for the king of Jewish Care

April 2, 2009 10:10
Simon Morris is optimistic about the future despite having to make staff redundant and warning about possible cuts to services

BySimon Round, Simon Round

6 min read

Being in charge of a large organisation means you have to make tough decisions. Like many bosses over the past few months, Jewish Care chief executive Simon Morris has been staring at a balance sheet which does not add up. As a result, he has had to make 17 per cent of his staff redundant.

While redundancies are always painful, job losses at Jewish Care carry extra poignancy. The organisation exists to help those in the Jewish community who are in need. By chopping his workforce, Morris realises that he is, in effect, adding to his own workload. But ironically, he is also in the unrivalled position of being able to support those have lost their employment.

“We work to help people. So to have to inflict this kind of pain on people is very difficult. If it’s possible, we’ve done it with compassion. We had to make 22 posts redundant, but because we have managed to redeploy a number of our staff, only 13 have had to go. Those who have gone have been provided with support. We are helping them to find new jobs and we have an employee protection programme.”

However hard the call for Morris, the all-important factor is protecting the services that provide care for more than 7,000 people — the elderly, the mentally ill, refugees, Holocaust survivors and people with special needs. Jewish Care is a big-budget organisation. It needs to raise more than £15 million every year just to keep going. To balance the books, Morris has had to find savings of £2.5 million. “If this recession is as bad as people are saying it’s going to be, then it could be a grim time for us,” he says. “All the changes are about protecting our services. But if the financial shortfall gets worse, we will have to start closing down services.”