My wife Kay Whittle, who has died of cancer aged 75, was among the first women to become a director of social services, in Cumbria in 1988. She was a prodigiously talented individual whose achievements were surpassed only by her modesty.
She started out in social work as a child protection officer with Birmingham social services in 1970. Committed to the safety of children, she did night call-outs in the toughest estates, often with a police escort. By 1987 she was at the head of North Oxfordshire social services.
