Peter Smallridge is aged 55; married with three grown-up children, and two grandchildren. He has spent most of his working life in Social Services, and has recently retired.

He started out as a Mental Health Social Worker for West Sussex in 1965 and was quickly promoted to Senior Mental Health Social Worker. During the following four years he obtained a Diploma in Mental Health from London School of Economics. In 1971 a Social Services Department Office was established in Crawley and Peter, as Area Officer, was responsible for a population of around 80,000. Two years later he moved into teaching as Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Croydon College.

Peter returned to Local Government in 1975 when he joined Norfolk County Council as Group Officer where he was responsible for managing social work activities in one third of the county. Peter was later appointed as Divisional Manager for the Area. During hid time in Norfolk, Peter developed a particular interest in alternatives for custody for children and young people.

In 1982 Peter was appointed as Deputy Director for Warwickshire and moved into the Director’s post the following year. Warwickshire services a community of some 460,000 with a staff of 2,500. Peter’s work included targeting community services to those most in need and working with the local district councils and health authorities to develop sheltered housing for elderly people.

Peter became Director of Social Services for Kent in October 1991. Kent is somewhat larger than Warwickshire! The population of Kent prior to Local Government Reorganisation was 1.5m and the department employed nearly 8,500 people. The establishment of the new Medway Towns Council in April 1998 reduced the population to 1.25m and successive years of budget reductions and contracting out of services saw the numbers of staff directly employed fall to just under 5,000.

During his membership of the Association of Directors of Social Service Peter chaired the Training and Staff Development Committee and the Resources Committee. He was President of the Association in 1992/3. He also chaired the "Joint Initiative for Community Care" (JICC) from 1994 – 98.

Since leaving Kent County Council he has been appointed as Chair of West Kent health Authority and as National Trustee / Member of the Board of the British Red Cross Society.

He also chairs the European Institute of Social Services and is a Research Fellow at the University of Kent, and an Honorary Fellow at Christ Church College Canterbury.

He remains with JICC as part-time business manager and is an Associate Principle Consultant with CAPITA.