Sally Baldwin

Sarah Marie "Sally" Baldwin (born November 4, 1940 in Coatbridge , Scotland ; † October 28, 2003 in Rome , Italy ) was a British social scientist and professor at the University of York .

life and career

Sally Baldwin was the eldest daughter in a large family in the town of Coatbridge, the center of the Scottish iron industry, a few miles east of Glasgow . After her parents fell ill and died at an early age, she was primarily responsible for bringing up her younger siblings. She completed her academic training at the University of Glasgow , from which she graduated with a first-class degree in English language and literature . After working at the library at Edinburgh University , she enrolled at the University of York , where she began studying social policy . She received her diploma in 1973 and shortly afterwards was appointed the first research fellow in a group established to evaluate the work of the Family Fund . This was transformed into the Social Policy Research Unit (SPRU) in later years . In 1987 she was appointed director of the SPRU, after which she was appointed professor in 1990. Under her leadership, the Social Policy Research Unit doubled in size and established its reputation as a national center for research on social security, disability and care. Her own research also covered all of these areas. The dissertation of her doctorate , which she received in 1982, was considered a groundbreaking study of the financial costs for parents of a severely disabled child. This work was published in 1985 under the title The Cost Of Caring: Families With Disabled Children . During her tenure as director, Baldwin was involved in a research program into the outcomes of social welfare, particularly in relation to the elderly, disabled adults and their carers. This innovative work revealed the results that individuals were hoping for from care facilities, as well as the results that were considered important by professionals.

In 1994 Baldwin became Head of Department of the Department of Social Policy and Social Work at the University of York before taking over the position of Director of the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences in 1998 . In 2002, she put on more than 15 years her post as director of the SPRU down and went 61- and 62-year-old to retire, but was still that of the development of new and innovative research Economic and Social Research Council funded , involved. Evidence-based methods, including systematic review, were developed to apply to social policy and welfare. Within the University of York, she was recognized as an avid supporter of the Center for Women's Studies and Women's Rights in general. She also taught the first course on women and money in York and was heavily involved in the planning for the university's Alcuin Research and Resource Center . Outside of university, she was a founding member of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences , a trust-managed family fund project. She was also a board member of the Disability Alliance and chair of the Association of Directors of Research Centers in the Social Sciences . In addition, she acted as a consultant to numerous research project sponsors and worked with the National Health Service's research and development program until shortly before her death . In addition, Baldwin was one of the Community Health Council ( dt. About health committee ) of the city of York and was non-executive director of York NHS Trust . Throughout her life she campaigned for improved patient care, especially in the local care of cancer patients and the mentally ill.

In October 2003, Baldwin was on vacation in Italy to celebrate her 63rd birthday in Rome with her ex-husband, antique book dealer, Jack Baldwin, with whom she had been married for 30 years, and a friend. On October 28, 2003, at 10:30 a.m. local time, she was together with a few dozen other people on a moving walk at Roma Tiburtina train station in north-east Rome when parts of the moving walk collapsed and the British woman got into the gearbox of the passenger transport vehicle and through the gears in it was killed. Two other people were injured, some seriously, in the accident; including the railway employee Vincenzo Pratico, who had tried to free the Briton and thereby almost lost a leg and also had a broken wrist. Sally Baldwin was survived by her now husband Joe Callan and their two daughters Emma and Julia, as well as their grandson Theo.

Immediate police investigations revealed that five panels of the moving walkway were not properly attached during maintenance work or were removed and then no longer attached at all, which caused the accident. In April 2005, around a year and a half after the accident, three senior employees at OSC , which was responsible for maintenance, were charged with manslaughter and negligence. As early as October 2004, two company employees who were entrusted with the maintenance work were sentenced to prison terms (20 and 15 months). On December 20, 2006, two of the three senior executives charged, including the company's executive director, were sentenced to 22 and 18 months in prison for negligent homicide; the third defendant was acquitted. In addition, the Baldwins family and the railway worker seriously injured in the rescue attempts received compensation payments in the six-figure range.

Web links

• Obituary of Sally Baldwin , The Guardian , October 31, 2003, accessed July 1, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Worker relives rail station death (English), accessed on July 1, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Briton dies in Rome station accident (English), accessed on July 1, 2018
3. ↑ Commuter's 'walkway death escape' , accessed July 1, 2018
4. ↑ ^{a b} Rail station death pair sentenced , accessed on July 1, 2018
5. ↑ ROMA: DONNA STRITOLATA DA TAPIS ROULANT, DUE CONDANNE E UN'ASSOLUZIONE (Italian), accessed on July 1, 2018