THE director of Lancashire's social services is to take early retirement, county council bosses have announced.

Pauline Oliver, director of the social services department at County Hall, was praised by leader Hazel Harding for removing the department from special measures -- something which happens to failing council departments.

She took over the department in December 1990 has come under fire on several occasions.

In 2000, a damning Audit Commission report revealed that 13 children on the Child Protection Register did not even have a social worker.

Other criticisms in the Audit Commission report were that social workers often did not intervene until situations reached crisis point, despite having the second highest social services budget among similar authorities.

And the authority was told a higher proportion of children in institutional care should be in foster care and that the number of children in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale on the child protection register accounted for a third of the county's total.

Mrs Oliver's department was defended at the time by county councillors, who said the report was unbalanced.

Last year, the authority was removed from special measures. Coun Harding said today: "Pauline's main ambition in recent times was to remove Social Services from special measures, which she successfully achieved this year.

"She has worked tirelessly for this authority for the past 14 years, but has now decided that the time has come for someone else to take over and lead Social Services to meet the challenges ahead.

"I would like to thank Pauline on behalf of the council for the hard work she has put in over the years and wish her the very best for the future." Pauline Oliver has worked in the social care profession since 1966. She joined Lancashire Social Services as deputy director in 1988 and became director in 1991. She is one of the longest serving directors in the country.