Beti Jones: An Appreciation

Beti Jones played an important part in the launching of the Social Work Scotland Act of 1968 and establishing the Children’s Hearing system when she became the first Chief Adviser of Social Work to the Scottish Office in 1968.

Born in 1919, she spent her early life in the Rhondda Valley of South Wales, and was the first in her family to go to university, graduating from the University of Wales with a BA in history.

She was later acknowledged for her work with children by being offered a fellowship at the University of Cardiff.

Beti was a natural innovator and, after teaching and youth work, went to Germany as a youth officer in the Control Commission working with refugees. In 1947, she became the first children’s officer in Glamorgan, where she initiated a new regime.

Like other pioneers in childcare, she closed all children’s homes in the 1950s, placing children in care with foster families and forwarding supported adoptions. During that time, the Aberfan disaster happened in her area and she was one of the first to offer help to the families affected.

She remained in Glamorgan until 1968 and kept in touch with many of the children in the care of the local authority. On her appointment to the Scottish Office in 1968, she formed a team of already existing inspectors in childcare, welfare and probation and extended this by appointing senior social workers to a new social work advisory service.

The Act required a strong interventionist role from the Scottish Office in establishing combined departments and increasing the number of trained social workers. When she was appointed, fewer than half of the social workers in Scotland were fully qualified. Beti Jones’s commitment to training was reflected in her inclusion of senior civil servants in many training programmes.

To remove the ordeal of children attending adult courts, Children’s Hearings were established, with lay people forming panels and deciding on future action for children in trouble.

Her advisors travelled the country helping to establish panels, talking to community meetings and local councillors.

With so much change in social work, Beti nevertheless saw the importance of another major area of social concern, namely the state of long-stay hospitals in Scotland. Following the report on the Ely Hospital scandal in 1969, it was agreed to follow the recommendations of the report in Scotland.

With colleagues in the Scottish Home and Health Department, Beti secured the formation of the Scottish Hospital Advisory Service, starting the process which led to the closure of asylums and long-stay hospitals – and the beginning of community care as we know it in 2006.

For the next reorganisation of regional authorities, Beti mounted a series of residential seminars in 1974 for prospective directors of social work.

By the time she retired in 1980, she had increased the number of social workers with qualifications from fewer than half to more than 90%.

As a member of the Society of Friends, Beti’s devotion to children continued after her retirement. She was as a board member of Mount Quaker School in York and a member of Save the Children Fund.

Beti’s was a larger-than-life personality with great warmth and kindness, and could be like a ship in full sail when committed to achieving something.

She died in September after moving to a nursing home to be near her family in Wales.