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.
