Joe Gerada is leaving the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, which he has headed for the past eight years, but said he will continue supporting the foundation.

Mr Gerada will be taking up a post in human resources within the private sector, saying this was a new facet of social work.

"I will remain a big supporter of this sector and of the foundation," he said when contacted yesterday, adding that he would miss the foundation, its excellent staff and the clients.

"They are important people for me and it was very satisfactory to work with staff who had a vision," he said.

Mr Gerada said he had never looked at his post as a job but as a way to improve the local systems and he would continue pushing toward that direction.

During his years at the helm of the foundation, Mr Gerada has been outspoken about a number of issues. Just last month he said the number of children in residential care should go down by 80 per cent. He recently also said failed parents should be forced to put their children up for adoption rather than condemn them to an institute for years.

After the government raised the legal drinking age, up to 17 from 16, he said that while this measure was welcome it was still not enough.

He has also been outspoken on gambling, saying Malta was promoting an environment where people were constantly gambling.

In 2006, he had brought to light a case whereby the Malta Football Association had retained a 79-year-old convicted paedophile as a groundsman at the Pace Grasso ground in Paola, which also doubles as a playing field for a nearby school.