Helen Baker

Helen Baker DL has been a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire since 2008. She is part of the Lieutenancy team focused on Oxford West and holds the Lieutenancy’s prisons brief for the County.

Helen started her career as a social worker leading a community mental health team in London. Her career has mixed executive and non-executive responsibilities across the public and not-for-profit sectors and across the fields of health, social care, housing, and education.  She has always had a strong focus on working with those who have been marginalised and disadvantaged – particularly those with disabilities, mental health issues, or other long-term health conditions.  More recent roles focus exclusively on board governance.

Alongside this work, nationally, Helen has been on the board of three central government arms-length bodies and built experience in advising on public policy development, especially in the areas of professional standards, training, and regulation. She has also worked with research bodies influencing national policy around population health and wellbeing. Additionally, Helen has set up new organisations, including Charityworks, the UK’s graduate programme for not-for-profit organisations, and the Autism Schools Trust, for children with autism. She has chaired two specialist housing associations and is now chair of the homelessness charity Shelter.

In Oxfordshire, Helen managed a charity for older people with dementia, now known as Daybreak, early on in her career. She also co-founded and chaired the first ever charity for younger adults with dementia, now Young Dementia UK. Helen was Chair of Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action (2010–15), which supports the County’s charities and volunteers, and she remains closely involved with charities across the County. She is a member of the steering group for the Community Connections Project, which aims to support the rehabilitation of men leaving Bullingdon Prison.

Helen lives in Oxford with her husband Jonathan.