John Small obituary
My friend John Small, who has died aged 74, was a social worker who rose to be deputy director of social services at the London borough of Hackney before returning to his native Jamaica to work as a lecturer at the University of the West Indies.
One of John’s key concerns throughout his career was to make sure that black children in care should be given access to, and greater knowledge of, their cultural heritage. Though controversial at the time, his view, set out in a 1984 paper, The Crisis in Adoption, initiated a sea-change in Britain’s approach to the adoption and fostering of ethnic minority children.
It also led John to become involved in New Black Families, the first adoption agency focused on placing children with foster and adoptive parents sensitive to their heritage, of which he became its first director in a part-time role.
He was also a founder of the Association of Black Social Workers and Allied Professionals and aside from his day-to-day work in social services, he wrote prolifically and served variously as an examiner, lecturer and adviser to several British and American academic institutions and journals.
John was born in the parish of Manchester in Jamaica to David Small, a joiner, and Inez (nee Ducille), a housewife. He moved to London with his family in 1966, attending Brooke House school in Hackney before completing a degree in applied social studies at the University of Bradford in 1973, followed by a postgraduate certificate in social work.
His first two roles in social services were as a social worker in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest (1973-74) and Hackney (1974-76), after which he spent three years back in Jamaica as a children’s officer with the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Development.
After returning to the UK he became a manager of a social services unit in the London borough of Lambeth (1980-84), while also working as a part-time lecturer at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University). He joined Hackney as assistant director of social services in 1984 and became deputy in 1990.
He returned again to Jamaica in 1992 to join the faculty of social sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI), lecturing on social work and strategic management in human services. He also did some radio work, sat on the boards of several financial institutions and charitable organisations, took on the occasional government advisory role, and set up the International Returning Residents Association, which advocated for greater recognition of the economic and social role played by returning migrants to Jamaica.
John retired from UWI in 2012 and fully intended to remain in Jamaica. However, he came back to England in 2019 for medical treatment after having been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, and for various reasons was unable to travel home before his death.
John met his wife, Kathleen Betton, a barrister, in Jamaica in 1978, and they were married two years later. She survives him, as do their children, Jason, John Jr, Zahra and Jerome.