Helen Baker

Helen trained as a social worker starting her career in London leading a community mental health team. 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 – in particular those with disabilities, mental health issues or other long-term health conditions.  More recent roles focus exclusively on board governance.

In Oxfordshire, Helen managed a charity for older people with dementia (now known as Daybreak) co-founded and then chaired the first ever charity for younger adults with dementia (Young Dementia UK) and chaired community health and learning disability NHS trusts. She also chaired OCVA and remains closely involved with charities across the County.

Nationally, she 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.  Helen has also worked with research bodies influencing national policy around population health and wellbeing.  She was involved in setting up a number of new organisations including Charityworks, the graduate programme for not-for-profit organisations across the UK and The Autism Schools Trust for children with autism. She has chaired two specialist housing associations and now chairs the board of Shelter.

Helen is married to Sir Jonathan Baker and lives in Oxford.