My spouse Kay Whittle, who has died of most cancers aged 75, was among the many first ladies to grow to be a director of social providers, in Cumbria in 1988. She was a prodigiously proficient particular person whose achievements had been surpassed solely by her modesty.
She began out in social work as a toddler safety officer with Birmingham social providers in 1970. Dedicated to the protection of kids, she did night time call-outs within the hardest estates, typically with a police escort. By 1987 she was on the head of North Oxfordshire social providers.
Kay then performed a pivotal function within the investigations resulting in the Cleveland little one abuse inquiry after many kids had been faraway from their households; she re-energised Cleveland’s little one safety providers and in 1988 was appointed director of social providers in Cumbria. For 10 years Kay fulfilled the function with distinction.
Born in Newcastle, to Elizabeth (nee Harlock), a main faculty headteacher, and Ian McGregor, an engineer, Kay was educated at Edgbaston highschool in Birmingham and the Mount faculty, a Quaker faculty in York. Although her proposal to her head that she ought to research sociology at Essex College was met with a chilly stare, Kay was not deterred.
On leaving college, she began work in Birmingham, the place she and I met, arrange on a blind date on New 12 months’s eve that 12 months by a mutual pal. We married in 1972 on the Bournville Quaker Assembly Home.
From 1998 onwards, Kay served on the Common Medical Council’s Health to Practise Panel, an unbiased tribunal inspecting complaints in opposition to medical doctors (and, later, dentists). Her abilities in mastering advanced proof, her incisive questioning and humane appreciation of the pressures on medical doctors made her an irreplaceable colleague.
In 2004, she turned a director of the Retreat hospital in York – a Quaker hospital specialising within the psychological well being of younger individuals. Wealthy or poor, “posh” or not, all had been equal in Kay’s eyes, and other people knew it.
In retirement, our chief pleasure was exploring the remoter elements of Scotland and its islands. Kay’s enjoyment of panorama was infectious.
She was an skilled gardener and plantswoman, a eager naturalist, choir member and yacht skipper, an indefatigable fellswoman and skier, and an excellent cook dinner who delighted in entertaining mates. She was additionally a a lot liked godmother to 11 younger individuals.
Kay is survived by me, her sister, Ann, and 4 nephews and a niece.
