Frontline workers and community champions dominate the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, published on Saturday 10 October.

This bumper List showcases 414 exceptional contributions of unsung heroes in all four nations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is the most ethnically diverse list to date, with 13% of recipients from a minority ethnic background.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 awards 1,495 honours to people across the whole of the UK for their outstanding contributions to UK society.

Of those who have been awarded, 72% go to those who have worked tirelessly for their local community. This reflects the huge voluntary effort across the country in response to COVID-19, with recipients cumulatively supplying millions of free meals to those shielding, delivering care packages to NHS frontline workers and clocking up countless voluntary hours to support those at risk.

David Maguire MBE, 62 years old, from Glasgow, who repurposed his restaurant to provide free food to thousands of NHS workers at the hospital, vulnerable people and school children.

Jolene Miller BEM, 42 years old, from Stockton, County Durham, who volunteered as a paramedic to help her former colleagues while also continuing to work as a train driver.

Healthcare and social care workers make up 14% of the List, for contributions as diverse as setting up the COVID-19 hospitals to delivering medical care on the frontline. Celebrating the World Health Organisation’s Year of the Nurse and Midwife, 41 nurses and midwives are included in the List compared with 17 in the New Year Honours List 2020.

Jade Cole BEM, 39 years old from Cardiff, was the only member of her team able to enter the intensive care unit to deliver clinical trials which informed how COVID-19 patients were treated. Her work helped show that there was a survival advantage for patients prescribed a particular drug.

Felicia Kwaku OBE, 52 years old from London, is Associate Director of Nursing at King’s College NHS Foundation Trust, who provided a support network to thousands of BAME nurses.

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 is the first List to have 11% of recipients under 30. Young people have provided innovative solutions to keeping the country connected and supplying the NHS with Personal Protective Equipment.

Henry James BEM, 23 years old from Edinburgh, designed, created and delivered PPE for healthcare workers, using 3D printing technology. He’s supplied thousands of masks to local businesses, vets, care workers and local food distribution all free of charge.

John Challenger BEM, 17 years old from Flintshire, Clwyd, kept thousands of Sea Cadets together through lockdown, running weekly virtual quizzes and managing forums to keep Cadets connected.

Footballer Marcus Rashford receives an MBE for services to vulnerable children in the UK during Covid-19.

Joe Wicks and Mr Motivator (Derrick Evans) receive MBEs for their accessible, live workouts to encourage people to stay physically and mentally fit during Covid-19. Joining them are Lavina Mehta and Rajinder Singh Harzall ‘the Skipping Skih’ who receive MBEs for encouraging elderly people to stay active in lockdown.

The majority of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List was compiled before the ongoing pandemic. The List was deferred in order to consider nominations for people playing crucial roles during the first months of the COVID-19 effort and has prioritised frontline and community heroes who went above and beyond their duties to help others. These recipients are, like Sir Captain Tom Moore, outstanding examples of the many contributions continuously being made right across the UK, and symbolic of the collective national effort.

As well as those awarded for their response to COVID-19, recipients are being recognised for a wide range of other contributions to society.

There are damehoods for food writer and broadcaster Mary Berry and actress Maureen Lipman, and a knighthood for actor David Suchet.

There are CBEs for Professor Brian Cox, TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, actor Adrian Lester and singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading.

Former rugby legend Gareth Thomas receives a CBE, writer Sally Wainwright receives an OBE, and cricketer Darren Gough is awarded an MBE.

The honours system strives to be proportionally representative of UK society. This Honours List demonstrates the breadth of service given by people from all backgrounds from all across the UK. Of the 1,495 people who received an award:

• 1,358 candidates have been selected at BEM, MBE and OBE level:
  • 537 at BEM
  • 561 at MBE
  • 260 at OBE
• 1,069 (72%) of the recipients are people who have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacit
• 740 women are recognised in the List, representing 49% of the total
• 13% of the successful candidates come from a BAME background (previous highest was 12% in NY19)
• 6% of the successful candidates consider themselves to have a disability (under the Equality Act 2010)

Teachers and leaders all over the country have been recognised for their work during the Covid 19 pandemic in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Among those honoured are the headteachers of the pioneering Oak National Academy, which provided online lessons to make sure pupils did not miss out, and a head who made sure pupils with special educational needs and disabilities could still attend during lockdown.

98 people have been recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their outstanding contributions to the education and children’s services sectors. The list includes headteachers, teachers, social workers, foster carers and many who work with the most disadvantaged in society as well as those selected for their efforts during the pandemic.

Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson said:

The work that went in to making sure pupils could continue their education during lockdown and then make sure all children could return to their classes was phenomenal, so it is fantastic to see so many being recognised with some of the highest honours this country can award

I would like to congratulate all the recipients on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List because their work is so inspiring and deserving of recognition.

I would also like to offer a special thank you to those who continue to contribute as part of the national effort during the Covid-19 pandemic. This list highlights the many committed professionals who are working tirelessly across education and children’s services to deliver better outcomes for young people and students across the country during this challenging period.

Social Worker, Manvir Hothi has been awarded an MBE due to her work during the Covid-19 crisis. She sought and collected essentially needed items and voluntarily mobilised a group of volunteers close to where she lives to prepare and distribute care packs for key workers. These were then delivered to hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes across the country.

Matthew Hood and David Thomas, Principal and Curriculum Director at the Oak National Academy in London have been given OBE’s for their services to education during the pandemic. When it was announced that all schools would be closed, except for vulnerable children and the children of key workers, Matthew and David were at the forefront of innovative and fast-paced work to develop resources to make remote education the best it can be for both pupils and teachers

Similarly, Jane Davenport, headteacher at Reynalds Cross School has received an MBE for her services to young people with special educational needs and disabilities during the crisis. As headteacher at the school, Jane, with the help of her committed staff, made sure that she supported not only keyworkers’ children but also enabled those pupils and families who are most vulnerable to attend school during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of these children have very complex learning, physical, behavioural, and medical needs which makes keeping them safe increasingly harder in the current crisis.

A number of non Covid – 19 related nominees also feature on this year’s honours list. Yvonne Conolly, the first black headteacher in the UK has been awarded a CBE for her services to education. At 23 years old, Yvonne arrived in the UK from Jamaica in 1963 as a qualified teacher, having taught at a boarding school in Jamaica. Yvonne faced many challenges in finding a job at that time and with the help of a friend she started as a Supply teacher in Camden where she lived, and her first temporary assignment at George Eliot became permanent. Her first step into teaching in the UK became a giant leap when in 1969 she became the first female black headteacher in the UK.

For more information on the nominations, please contact the Department for Education Press Office on 02077838300.

Nominating someone for an award

If you know someone working to improve education, children’s services, or social mobility who deserves an honour, please contact the Honours Team at: honours.team@education.go.uk