Born: 13 November, 1917, in Dundee. Died: 27 October 2008, in Dundee, aged 90.
JULIA Robertson was an inspiration to a generation of Scottish child care professionals with her articulation of the highest standards and her insistence that children and young people in local authority care should be listened to and empowered.
Julia was born in Dundee in 1917. She was a promising scholar, but had to leave school at 15 to take over at home after her mother died. This was a necessary move, but, for her, a distressing one. During the war she undertook officer training in the ATS, then served as a wireless operator, remembering her Morse code to the end of her life.
After the war she became involved in community work and was glad to be able to return to her postponed education, studying at the Dundee School of Economics and Commerce and the University of Liverpool, from where she graduated with certificates in social science and the care of children and young persons.
Her passion for learning was general. She was a widely read student of Scotland's history and culture as well as being a keen hill-walker.
Julia was one of a team of remarkable child care pioneers who reshaped the service, arguing for smaller, family-sized children's homes and the importance of good foster home assessment and support.
In her time in child care posts in England and Scotland she was unwavering in her adherence to the highest standards of care, and her insistence that colleagues at all levels had the same commitment.
She was the children's officer for Angus County, and ran her department with an uncompromising determination to keep the child at the centre of decisions. Julia's approach did not make for plain sailing for staff. She was more a of a prophet than a ruler. She saw clearly the difficult path we must take, including herself, and was not interested in excuses, however justifiable.
On the other hand Julia was the first to suggest that her staff went home if they were feeling unwell, and would complete any of their tasks herself.
Normal working hours meant nothing to her. As head of the children's department she would do a day's work in the office then set off to do another long stint through the evening, driving to the remotest parts of Angus in all seasons assessing and visiting foster parents and children.
After a lifetime's work Julia had many contacts in high places, and was prepared to use them in the interests of the young people in her care. Yet she was the least boastful person you could meet. She cared little for popularity or personal prestige and nothing for material rewards.
After a spell as depute director of social work in Angus, local government reorganisation took her to Tayside House as regional child care officer. Here she focused her experience and passion for high standards in child care on advising and producing reports for senior management. This was not a cosy relationship. Senior managers were, by necessity, more concerned about what was possible than what was the ideal.
Then, towards the end of a long and influential career, Who Cares entered Julia's life. The movement was setting up self-advocacy groups of young people in care, to represent their views and wishes to the councils standing in as their parents.
Julia was enthused with the idea of bringing into being such a group for Tayside, and set up one of the first Who Cares groups in Scotland. Other parts of the country followed. Now, 30 years later, Who Cares Scotland has a staff of 37, many of whom are former young people in care, and has the ear of legislators and councils.
One of her messages was that politicians and officials were not their masters but their servants. She once brought a panel of the great and the good to Dalguise Outdoor Centre for a Who Cares weekend meeting, not to pontificate, but to be questioned, sharply and effectively, by the group. She said that before Who Cares "the roles and responsibilities of senior management and councillors were imperfectly understood, and personalities were largely unknown … Who Cares has helped many children to have a clearer perception of the law as it impinges on them, and has increased mutual understanding by creating opportunities for the young people to meet informally the 'big guns' – senior management and administrative staff, councillors, children's panel members, social workers, and official from government departments."
Who Cares has, in Julia's words "given many of the young people a new sense of their own worth and dignity as individuals". Julia's involvement in the Who Cares group was one of her last contributions in a long and influential career in child care. It showed her in high relief: principled, fiercely protective of the young people in her care, demanding the highest standards of herself and others, courageous, outspoken and much loved by generations of young people whose lives she enriched.
Julia Robertson is survived by her sister, Betty, nieces and nephews and their families.
• PHIL DAIVSON
