Vera Hiddleston OBE MA(hons) was a pioneer in social work training, an experienced child care specialist and key figure in the development of the social work sector during the 1960s-1970s, a period of significant change within the Scottish system.
Vera Hiddleston was born on 27 October 1931 and grew up in the Stirlingshire village of Airth. She was a dux of Stirling High School. In 1953 she graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons) in History went on to complete a diploma in Social Study in 1954.
After qualifying Vera Hiddleston worked for several years as Senior Child Care Officer in Mid Lothian, East Lothian and Peebles children’s department and was one of three supervisors on the Edinburgh child-care course. Hiddleston became the first director of the Scottish Probation Officers' Training Course and established professional probation training in Scotland in the 1960s. In 1967 she became a lecturer, then head of the Division of Social Work at Jordanhill College of Education.
Vera Hiddleston was a member of the Scottish Advisory Council in Child Care (1960-62) and the Council for Training and Education in Social Work (1968-70). She also chaired the Scottish social workers’ parliamentary group, lobbying political parties in the House of Commons and constituency MPs on the need for integrated local authority social work departments. She later became chair of the management committee of the Centre for the Study of Child Abuse. In 1975 Vera Hiddleston was awarded an OBE for services to social work.
In November 2006 she gave a paper on the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 to the Social Work History Network at Edinburgh University. The paper detailed her views on the development of social work in Scotland and the impact of the 1964 Kilbrandon Report in creating integrated local authority social work departments.
Vera Hiddleston died at Galashiels on 27 April 2017 at the age of 85 years.