Home care sector champion awarded CBE in Queen's Birthday Honours

Bridget Warr, chief executive of United Kingdom Homecare Association, which represents home care providers, has been given a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Nominations for Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) are considered for people who have made contributions at a national level, or leading roles at regional level, or who have made a distinguished, innovative contribution to a specific area.

Bridget Warr joined United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) as the Association’s chief executive in July 2010, having been the chief executive of Guide Dogs for the previous six years.

After teaching for a year in the West Indies, Ms Warr trained in social work and had wide experience in probation and local authority childcare, fostering and adoption services. Her career included working as the assistant director for the British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF) and a number of roles at director level at the national disability charity, Scope. She has been the trustee of several charities, including an adoption agency, BAAF and the charity leaders’ network, ACEVO.

She said: “I was delighted and humbled to receive this nomination. It is so encouraging that social care in all its guises is becoming well recognised as a vital service. It is essential that people in vulnerable situations can be confident that their health and wellbeing is valued by society.

“To do work that I enjoy, in an area about which I feel passionately, surrounded by so many hard-working, committed people is a pleasure. To have the importance of the work we all do recognised publicly is an absolute honour.”

Mike Padgham, chair of UKHCA, congratulated Ms Warr for her recognition in the Queen’s birthday honours list, saying: “UKHCA’s Board and executive team are absolutely delighted to see Bridget’s contributions to social care and the voluntary sector recognised honoured today.

“This is a richly-deserved award which is a tribute to the fantastic work Bridget does to improve the support available to people across the country.

“Bridget brings a passion, energy and enthusiasm to her role as a chief executive that has helped transform our organisation. She has brought the care of people in their own home and the development of the staff who provide that care to another level.

“All of us in social care and the many thousands who benefit from it are indebted to Bridget and today congratulate her on her nomination.”

She is currently the independent chair of the Quality and Safeguarding Boards for the national deafblind charity, Sense and is on the panel of Chairs of Appeals panels for Continuing Health Care in the NHS. Bridget recently chaired the Guidance Committee on homecare for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).