A headteacher who turned around a failing school, a top doctor on the front lines against coronavirus and a Southwark finance director who helps shore up an embattled local authority were all included in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Mickey Kelly, until recently headteacher at Redriff Primary City of London Academy in Rotherhithe, was given an MBE for services to education and the local community. Dr Katherine Henderson, an emergency consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’, was given an MBE for her life-saving work Covid-19 work.
Duncan Whitfield, strategic director of finance and local government at Southwark Council, received an MBE for services to local government.
Mr Kelly, who has worked in education for 33 years, helped lead Redriff Primary out of special measures. The school later got an outstanding Ofsted rating. He is also one of the founders of the City of London Academies Trust, which has ten schools – including three in Southwark.
He left Redriff Primary in January 2021 to become executive head at Grinling Gibbons & Lucas Vale Federation in Deptford.
Mr Kelly said: “I was stunned and quite moved to learn I’d got the award. It’s lovely to get recognition and it’s something I’m really proud of. I worked very hard to take the school forward but so did so many other people – it was a real team effort.
“It’s very important to me to have recognition of service to the community. Schools are not just about getting good results but serving the community and acting almost as a village where people from a huge variety of backgrounds can come together and feel like they belong.”
Dr Henderson has been an emergency medicine consultant for more than twenty years. She has worked at St Thomas’ Hospital since 2006. She became the first female President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine in 2019.
Dr Henderson also helped lead the redevelopment of the St Thomas’ emergency department, which was reopened in 2018 by Princess Anne.
Dr Henderson said: “I am very pleased to receive this honour which I consider to be for all the emergency medicine teams who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic.
“Emergency departments have been there 24/7 for everyone who needed to see a doctor or nurse face to face in whatever medical emergency they found themselves in.
“The pandemic challenged our clinical skills, but we learnt fast. I am proud of my role as College President and proud of everyone who has been in the front line of care in our emergency departments. This award is a tribute to the incredible work of all in our specialty.”
Mr Whitfield has nearly 30 years of experience in local government finance. He has been strategic director of finance and governance at Southwark Council since 2012 and was finance director for seven years before that. Before joining Southwark he had similar jobs at Westminster City Council from the early 1990s.
Mr Whitfield stepped in last year to become chairman of the independent review panel for Croydon’s finances, after the south London borough struggled with more than £1.5bn of debt.