Among the senior public managers recognised in the New Year honours list, David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, becomes a knight and Natalie Ceeney, the chief executive of the National Archives, receives a CBE.
Managers in all areas of public service also received recognition in this year's list, from the arts to less glamorous areas. Those receiving CBs include:
Christopher Bolt, arbiter, London Underground Public Private Partnership Agreements and lately chair, Office of Rail Regulation, Department for Transport.
Lawrence Conway, Formerly director, Department of the First Minister, Welsh Assembly Government.
Gloria Linda Craig, director, International Security Policy, Ministry of Defence.
Elizabeth Anne Jackson, director, child wellbeing, Children and Families Directorate, Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Helen Kilpatrick, director-general, Financial and Commercial, Home Office.
William Francis Sebastian Rickett, director-general of Energy, Department for Energy and Climate Change
Health, social care and charity professionals are prominent in the
list; Clare Tickell, chief executive of charity, Action for Children, and Margaret Eaton chair of the Local Government Association, both become Dames.
In the totting up of honours, commentators have noted the absence of politicians and bankers on this year's list.
The state sector – army officers, civil servants and diplomats – gets 13% of the total.
Six per cent of recipients come from ethnic minority communities – including Judge Mota Singh QC, one of 20 new knights and six new dames, among them Claire Bertschinger, the nurse made famous during the 1984 Ethiopian famine.
About 11% of honours go to education, including 19 headteachers, and 12% to industry and the economy, including key players in the bank rescue operation.
There is also an article by the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, in today's Guardian praising the contribution of "ordinary people" to public services.
From Whitehall Watch
From Bubb's Blog
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
