My friend and mentor Peter Westland, who has died aged 90, was one of the first directors of social services in the UK, and later had a significant influence on social care at the Association of Metropolitan Authorities (AMA), where he campaigned against the marketisation of care services.
Peter was born in Glanford Brigg, Lincolnshire, to Fred, a railway shunter, and Kathleen (nee Kemp), a housewife who occasionally took in washing. He attended Scunthorpe grammar school and at the age of 23, after graduation from King’s College, Newcastle upon Tyne, national service and a postgraduate course at the London School of Economics, he became a probation officer in Newcastle, moving to Surrey county council three years later in 1959.
Frustrated at the poor pay and conditions, as well as the limited opportunity for promotion, he resigned in 1962 and became a salesperson for the academic publisher McGraw Hill with a company car and a much-improved salary.
But it was not really the kind of job Peter relished, and after a year he joined the Home Office Probation Inspectorate as a civil servant, with a main focus on juvenile delinquency. In 1966 he moved into local authority children’s services at the London borough of Wandsworth, first as the deputy children’s officer and then as acting children’s officer.
After the 1968 Seebohm report recommended the creation of dedicated social services departments within local authorities, in 1971 Peter was appointed to set one up one of the first at the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham – as its director of social services. Under his leadership the department became one that every social worker wanted to join. It was innovative and exciting, committed to family-oriented social services and community social work, conformed to the highest standards, and Peter was a popular boss who never knowingly missed a party.
In 1980 he moved to become under secretary of social services at the AMA, championing the importance of local social services. It was a role that well suited his vigorous personality, intellectual rigour and professionalism, and he energised the AMA’s campaigns. Civil servants respected his arguments, and his flair and determination in leading cross-sector lobbying resulted in key amendments to the 1986 Social Security Act and the 1989 Children Act.
After retiring in 1994, Peter became chair of the not-for-profit Broadcasting Support Services organisation for nine years, which managed helplines for a number of charities. He was also involved in the creation of the charity Action on Elder Abuse, now called Hourglass, serving on its board from 1995 to 2018. In 2004 he became a commissioner of the Commission for Social Care Inspection.
He also went to South Africa, at the request of the African National Congress, as an independent consultant, advising on social care as the country moved from apartheid to democracy. And he undertook a similar role in Ukraine as it became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union. He was appointed CBE in 1997.
Peter’s 1959 marriage to Mary (nee Potts) ended in divorce ten years later, though they remained friends. He is survived by his second wife, Jane (nee Lacey), a social worker whom he married in 1973, their children, Naomi, Hannah and Daniel, and eight grandchildren.