Norman Glass, 1946-2009

Norman Glass, Director of the National Centre for Social Research, or NatCen as it became known, has died at the age of 63.

In our field Norman will mainly be remembered for leading the Treasury initiative to establish Sure Start Local Partnerships, what we today call Children’s Centres.
 
As Deputy Director for Treasury he gathered around him many leading lights in children’s research and children’s services. He must have tired easily of the out-dated rivalries that many of the experts brought into the room. But he never showed it. And he delivered a product that more or less everyone supported.
 
The Social Research Unit’s contribution was the book Prevention and Early Intervention for Children in Need. He and Naomi Eisenstadt, who eventually took responsibility for the programme, said nice things about the book. But it was more a case of the evidence supporting the policy than the other way around.
 
Norman often said the turning point for the initiative came with a presentation by David Farrington to one of the expert seminars. It had been a long day. All the presenters had gone on too long, and the audience were not to be outdone. Farrington was left with about 10 minutes. He abandoned his learned paper and gave an upbeat presentation saying that something could be done, and should be done. Norman and Naomi ensured that something was done. Norman chaired the Expert Advisory Committee for the Social Research Unit’s development work for the Atlantic Philanthropies in Ireland, our first stab at a large scale investment strategy designed to improve outcomes for children.
 
It was an odd sort of committee with many competing agendas. But he was smart, supportive, urbane and no push over. My two abiding memories of him during this period was his preparedness to give time when needed and his great sense of humour. He loved to laugh. Naomi Eisenstadt’s obituary will appear in Prevention Action on Monday.