During Gordon Barritt’s 16 years as head of National Children’s Home (now Action for Children) there was a radical change in the way children in need of care were looked after. His tenure, an unusually long one for the head of any big charity, proved to be one of the most critical in his organisation’s history.
Appointed principal in 1969, Barritt, who has died aged 95, recognised the social changes that were having an impact on the work of the charity, such as changing family patterns and a rise in the divorce rate. The organisation still concentrated on running residential homes at a time when these were becoming regarded as outdated by most social services departments, which were reluctant to pay the fees. The losses had to be met from the charity’s reserves.
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