Lauren Wright case chief to retire

The director of social services at the centre
of the Lauren Wright case has announced he is to step down.

David
Wright, who has headed Norfolk social services for the past 12
years, is to take early retirement in November.

The
council’s chief executive, Tim Byles, paid tribute to Wright saying
he had steered the authority through some difficult
times.

“It is
no secret that the tragic death of Lauren Wright had a profound
impact on the social services department as a whole and on David in
particular. It would have been very easy for David to retire then.
It is a mark of the man that he accepted full responsibility for
social services mistakes and vowed to stay on, to make sure that
staff were not left at a low point without a leader and that the
necessary improvements were put in place.”

David
Wright qualified as a social worker in 1969 initially working in
mental health. He has chaired the Russian European Trust since
1993, which aims at sharing good practice in social work with
Russia.