The chief executives of Mind and the former head of the Charities Aid Foundation are among the charity leaders to receive senior gongs in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours.
Sarah Hughes and Neil Heslop were both appointed CBE in this year’s list, which includes scores of figures from across the voluntary sector.
Hughes has led Mind for the past three years, having spent five years in the top job at the Centre for Mental Health.
Heslop, who retired from full-time work in April after six years at CAF, previously led the disability charity Leonard Cheshire for four years.
He was appointed OBE in 2002 for services to British telecommunications and charity.
Other awards this year include damehoods for Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, and Crystal Oldman, former chief executive of the Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing.
Voluntary sector figures to also receive CBEs include Yasmin Khan, chief executive of the anti-violence against women charity the Halo Project; Jonathan Yates, executive director of the Youth Endowment Fund; Craig Crowley, chief executive of Action Deafness; Melanie Keen, former director of the Wellcome Collection; and Rhiannon Hiles, chief executive of the Beamish Museum.
The same honour also went to Sarah Barclay, founder and director of the Medical Mediation Foundation; Lisa Harker, director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory; and Allison Gardner, who retired in October as chief executive of Glasgow Film after more than 30 years with the charity.
Voluntary sector figures to receive OBEs included David Bowles, head of campaigns and public affairs at the RSPCA; Celia Richardson, director of communications and fundraising at the National Trust; Alistair Halliday, chief executive of the Forces Employment Charity; Hilda Hayo, chief executive of Dementia UK; and Sarah Hamilton-Fairley, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust.
Others to be appointed OBE included Martin Blakebrough, who last year stepped down after 27 years as chief executive of the substance abuse charity the Kaleidoscope Project; Ian Joseph, co-founder of Trustees Unlimited and Step on Board and joint managing director of the recruitment firm Russam; Paul Finnegan, chief executive of the mental-health charity Lighthouse; Liz Carnelley, former director of partnership at the Church Urban Fund; and Mari Eggins, chief executive of Carefree Cornwall, which works with young people with experience of the care system.
Naomi Hulston, chief executive of the youth charity Catch22, was awarded an MBE for services to young people; while Joy Madeiros, group chief executive of the Oasis Charitable Trust and founding member of the Women’s Faith Forum, received an MBE for services to education and faith relations.
Other MBE recipients included Mark Downs, who retired as chief of the Royal Society for Biology last year; Nick Bent, leader of social mobility charity UpReach; Sarah Jane Chimbwandira, chief executive of the Surrey Wildlife Trust; and Robyn Llewellyn, director of England, Midlands and east, for the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
A British Empire Medal went to a further 305 people, many of whom were recognised for outstanding work in their local communities.
The oldest recipient on the list is 101-year-old Pauline Hough, who received a BEM for services to theatre and to the community in Nantwich.
The Cabinet Office said that of the 1,182 people to receive an honour, 11.5 per cent were from an ethnic minority background while 15.6 per cent had a disability.