Kingston social service’s knight retires

The man who oversaw Kingston Council’s social services department for 15 years has retired. Roy Taylor was director of community services, looking after council housing, environmental health and community care before he retired on Friday.

Bruce McDonald, chief executive of Kingston Council, wished him well. He said: “One thing in particular shines through about Roy’s work – his capacity to put himself in the shoes of others and the way he uses this capacity to inspire all of us to think about how we can best meet the needs of service users and our community in general.”

Mr Taylor oversaw the merger of children’s social care with education and currently serves as a social services representative on the national Pandemic Influenza Committee.

He was awarded a CBE in 2000 in recognition of his work with social services.