Helen Mary Williams CB (born 30 June 1950) is a British civil servant and Director of School Curriculum and Pupil Well-being at the

Department for Children, Schools and Families Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. DCSF was replac ...

. Born to Graham Myatt and Mary Harrison she was educated at

Allerton High School Allerton High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Alwoodley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is situated around 500 metres north of the A6120 Leeds Outer Ring Road, north of the Moor Allerton shopping centre ...

in Leeds before matriculating to

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon Saint, Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it ...

, where she gained an honours degree in Modern History. She began work for the Department for Education and Skills in 1972, and between 1984 and 1993 worked as an Assistant Secretary in the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

dealing with Research Council funding. From 1993 to 1998 she was on loan from the Department for Education working for the

Office of Science and Technology The Office of Science and Technology (OST), later (briefly) named the Office of Science and Innovation, was a non-ministerial government department of the British government between 1992 and 2007. The office was responsible for co-ordination of ...

, reporting to first William Stewart and then to Sir

John Cadogan Sir John Ivan George Cadogan (8 October 1930 – 9 February 2020) was a British organic chemist. Early life Cadogan was born in Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom. He was educated at Swansea Grammar School, where he achieved St ...

. In 1999 she returned to the Department for Education, now the Department for Education and Employment, and became Director of School Organisation and Funding. In 2002 she became Director of Primary Education and e-learning, and in 2004 she was made Co-Director of School Standards before being promoted to Director of School Curriculum and Pupil Well-being in 2006. She was made a

Companion of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...

in the

2006 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2006 in some Commonwealth realms were announced (on 31 December 2005) in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Grenada, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, and Saint Christopher and Nevis to cel ...

Personal life

Her first marriage was to Ian Vaughan Williams in 1975; the marriage ended in a divorce in 1982. She remarried in 1993 to David Forrester, another civil servant, with whom she has two children, one son and one daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Helen 1950 births Civil servants in the Department of Education (United Kingdom) Civil servants in the Department for Education and Employment Civil servants in the Department for Education and Skills Civil servants in the Department for Children, Schools and Families Civil servants in the Office of Science and Technology Companions of the Order of the Bath Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford Living people People educated at Allerton High School