Community
Jewish Care chief: Why we have to shed jobs as we adapt to protect the vulnerable during the pandemic
Daniel Carmel-Brown explains the challenges facing the charity - and the way forward
November 6, 2020 09:49
Daniel Carmel-Brown explains the challenges facing the charity - and the way forward
November 6, 2020 09:49Nearly eight months since I first wrote in these columns about the impact of Covid-19 and the lockdown on the Jewish community, once again we find ourselves entering a national lockdown.
This time, the days will be shorter and the weather much less kind. Like many social care organisations, Jewish Care has been planning for this period for some time so that we can continue to be there, albeit in different ways, for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.
I am truly heartbroken that the doors of our community and day centres have had to remain closed. But the reality we all face as we go into the winter, even before the latest lockdown, is that any in-person gatherings still carry a significant risk, especially to those who are so vulnerable.
Given that we are unable to go back into our centres soon, we know that we can now best serve our members for the short term by investing in and further enhancing the outreach programme that we have developed.
We are glad to be able to offer an expansion of our meals-on-wheels, telephone befriending and digital services.
This is in addition to the incredible work already being done by our social work teams and the Jewish Care Direct helpline.
However, it does also mean that, regretfully, we are unable to sustain the full complement of staff that were needed to run the services at our centres when we could meet all our members in person. We have now started a redundancy consultation with 120 staff.
We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Over the past few weeks, I have met with all the teams who are affected in socially distanced meetings at each centre. These have left me humbled but not surprised by their reactions.
Each team first and foremost expressed concern, not for their own jobs but for the welfare of the members and clients they support. The wellbeing of our clients will always be a priority and we will be working to ensure that all their needs are met and our services to them will continue and expand over the coming months.
Our volunteers, hundreds of whom I also met with last week over Zoom, will continue to play a key role in ensuring the smooth running of these services.
As CEO of a social care organisation, it is my duty and responsibility to ensure the organisation can deliver high-quality services to our members — and to ensure that they are sustainable now and in the future.
If we do not rethink our community services now — with the added expenditure of PPE, extra cleaning and other costs caused by the pandemic — we would face a situation in the future where none of our services would be able to continue.
That is not something I, or our trustees, are prepared to allow to happen.
With an ageing population and increasing numbers of people living alone in their own homes, these community-based services are an integral part of our longer term strategy.
We absolutely plan to resume activities in community and day centres once it is safe to do so.
In the meantime, Jewish Care remains incredibly grateful for the support shown to us when we have needed it the most.
We hope that these difficult decisions and the changes that we are making will enable a better, long-term source of support for many more people who need and depend on us.
Daniel Carmel-Brown is chief executive of Jewish Care
