Jewish Chronicle, June 13 2003.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the Jews look after their own. For the government, this is a cause of unbridled admiration. Ministers such as Gordon Brown extol the way the Jewish community funds an infrastructure of care homes and other social services.

And indeed, it should be viewed with great pride. Many generous figures dig deep into their pockets to provide high standards of care for those who require it. As a result, the community tends to imagine that its aged, chronically sick or handicapped and other needy folk are well provided for and there’s no need to worry.

But there is. For Jewish care homes are in desperate straits. They are simply running out of money. Some may go to the wall, causing untold distress to frail residents. Others face an invidious choice between reducing their standards and closing down.

From the beginning of this year Jewish Care, which is now running a deficit of more than £3 million, has been charging new residents in its homes – those whose income is so low their places are funded by their local authority -- £45 per week, and has asked relatives of existing council-funded residents to fork out the same amount as a voluntary donation.

The reason is a national care homes crisis caused by a serious shortfall between the homes’ rising costs and the funds local authorities are choosing to pass onto them from an already inadequate government allocation.

Last year, this local authority swindle got so serious the government stepped in and councils released more money to the homes. This year, the government is disinclined to wade in again. So the councils are up to their old tricks once again in failing to pass on enough money to cover the homes’ costs.

The result is that organisations like Jewish Care will have to retrench and start reducing their services. As someone with a relative who has benefited from the high standards of Jewish Care, and with other relatives being looked after in other homes, I find this prospect particularly appalling.

There is distress all over the country. Many small homes have shut down, causing immense upset and often premature death to elderly residents who find themselves suddenly shunted out of the only home they know.

Underfunding also means a poor standard of care. As people live to ever greater ages and the level of frailty rises, there is an increasing need for well trained staff. Yet homes depend on carers who are often inadequately trained, and used simply because they are cheap.

Many nurses and carers are brilliant. They don’t just perform essential tasks for their helpless charges with skill and efficiency; they also treat them as human beings, with sensitivity, compassion and even love. But with so many poorly trained carers being used, there are too many who have little understanding of the way physical, mental and emotional needs all form a nexus of frailty. The result is that some of our most needy people may get care that is rushed, perfunctory or even unkind.

But better training would cost more money; and care homes haven’t got enough even to keep standards as they are.

This crisis has far deeper roots than government parsimony or council legerdemain. In the long run, it can only be solved through some kind of new insurance-based system of care funding. But for the present, unless more money is urgently provided, the consequences will be dire.

The Jewish community needs to do two things. First, it must dig even deeper into those capacious pockets. It is coasting along on complacency, assuming that its duty is done through successful appeals for spanking new buildings. But the real costs are incurred by the staff inside those buildings; and at present, there simply isn’t the money for enough carers, let alone well trained ones.

Equally important, the community has got to start exercising some political muscle. Not a squeak has been heard from it over the care homes crisis, no doubt in line with the characteristic posture of British Jews in keeping heads below parapets in all circumstances. Well, it’s time to stick them over the top.

Let us hope that Lord Levy, president of Jewish Care, is bending the ear of his good friend the Prime Minister about this urgent problem. Other well-connected community notables should similarly be raising it at every opportunity. And is it too much to expect the Board of Deputies to raise its voice above an inaudible murmur?

The care world is fragmented, and therein lies its powerlessness. The Jewish community could take a lead in welding together an alliance of care organisations to bring to public attention what is happening and shame both government and councils into solving this crisis.

But first, the Jewish community has got to wake up.

Posted by tom at June 13, 2003