From the later 1970s to the early 90s Jeremy Beecham showed the political drive to help people in need in Newcastle, and he and the social services director Brian Roycroft established services provided by the city council.
Citizens had the benefit of local community-based, accessible and integrated social work and care services all run by the same organisation. A social worker, home help, nursery centres, day centres and care homes were all nearby, as were the housing officers. If you went into hospital there was a social worker on site, and psychogeriatricians visited specialist care homes.
These were exciting and energising times, and the fact that such services can exist and people experienced them sustained me through the hard times when as a senior manager I came to have the task of dismantling them.
