My wife, Margaret Copley, who has died aged 80, was a social worker who helped to introduce new models of caring for children into the UK.
Born in Leeds to Agnes (nee Conboy) and Frank Quinn, a gardener, she was one of six children, the youngest of whom became the chef Michael Quinn. Margaret went to St Mary’s Roman Catholic grammar school in Leeds, leaving at 16 so that she could work to help the family’s finances.
She did various clerical jobs until, at 22, she was given the opportunity to go as a volunteer with the Grail, a Roman Catholic lay order of women, to Lebanon. There she worked at a school for the profoundly deaf, an experience that she said was the making of her.
On her return to Leeds in 1965, she worked with Leeds Diocesan Catholic Rescue for a year before applying for a place on the new Home Office letter of recognition course at Leeds University - the first three-year course in the UK for child care officers and probation officers in the UK.
At the beginning of her second year, she went on a placement to Leeds city council’s care of children department, where we met. In 1970 she prepared for our marriage, Roman Catholic and Methodist, with the same determination, careful thought and sense of humour that she demonstrated in her life and work.
It was while working at the multidisciplinary Family Advisory Centre in Liverpool, in 1979, that Margaret helped to introduce Portage – a home-visiting educational service – into the UK. She joined a country-wide group of educational psychologists and social workers who saw that Portage could support the parents of preschool children with special educational needs or disability. Along with two colleagues, she developed a home-visiting service in the city.
In 1986 she was appointed to run a Portage service in Knowsley and there, alongside the home-visiting service on a one-to-one basis, she adapted the model to work with parents in groups. To help her in the task, she trained as a teacher of adults, enabling her to help professionals across the north-west in Portage.
The outcome of her work in Knowsley was that a number of parents recognised their own potential and went back into education, some to degree level. Margaret herself obtained a master’s in education as a result of this work.
She is survived by me, our three children, Jonathan, Judith and Daniel, and four grandchildren, Idris, Isabel, Nye and George.
