King's Birthday Honours 2023: Here are the people from Wakefield awarded honours, including a PE teacher

His Majesty The King’s first Official Birthday Honours List includes recipients who have contributed significant amounts of service to their local communities and the country as a whole.

Many have been awarded for voluntary work - going above and beyond to help others, while asking for little recognition in return.

In the Wakefield district, they are:

Andrew Michael Green BEM

Andrew Green, 67, Physical Education Teacher, New College Pontefract, for Services to Sport and to Education.

Mr Green has been a PE teacher for 45 years, inspiring students to reach their potential, regardless of their background or ability.

Mr Green joined Outwood Grange in April 1991 where he was instrumental in obtaining funding from the sports lottery for an all-weather pitch so pupils could have the best sporting facilities available to them.

He tirelessly fundraised to secure additional monies for the pupils of Outwood Grange and the local community.

He put a strategy in place and set up exchange visits to schools in Malta and Australia, again raising funds to provide places to those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This determination travelled with him when he joined New College, Pontefract in December 2010, where he redesigned the sports programme so that disabled students could get involved in sport by seeking alternatives such as Boccia and wheelchair basketball.

He developed sports leaders in special schools so that all children could benefit from sporting activities and worked voluntarily with sports committees to secure opportunities for children and would take the children to competitions in his own time.

He went beyond his normal work and set up health programmes to tackle obesity by collaborating with the police and community to improve the lives of vulnerable children.

He has been recognised by several awarding bodies including a Pearson Teaching Award for a lifetime dedicated to PE.

He set up and managed junior cricket teams. This continued in the winter months, leading him to set up the winter nets, when he encouraged girls to take up the sport, which led to a girl from the club representing the county in the under 15s team.

Mr Green said: “I was amazed to be given this award and very proud to receive such recognition.

"This will be dedicated to my fantastic colleagues, parent volunteers and wonderful family, who have supported me over the years. It has been a privilege to work with thousands of youngsters in schools, colleges and the local community.

"Providing opportunities for children and young people to develop their skills and achieve their potential has always been a great pleasure and honour in itself.”

Katy Merrington BEM

Cultural Gardener at The Hepworth Wakefield, 39-year-old Katy Merrington has been awarded the BEM for Services to the Arts and to the community in Wakefield.

She is the Cultural Gardener at The Hepworth Wakefield, where she has planted and nurtured a public garden, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, since its first planting in 2019.

Katy’s role is about more than just looking after the plants and vegetation but is also about the community and use of the garden by the community.

She works with a team of volunteers to maintain the garden and works with the learning and events team to develop the space as a community venue and regularly hosts talks and workshops on gardening at The Hepworth,

mobilises teams of volunteers to work on it, and documents her experience of caring for the garden in a monthly online Diary of a Cultural Gardener.

Katy has previously worked in some of the best gardens in the UK and USA including Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh at Logan, Dumfries & Galloway and Longwood Gardens: Pennsylvania, USA.

She studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and has conducted freelance projects for galleries across Newcastle as well as leading a programme of family and engagement events in a wide range of gardens and art spaces.

Katy said: ‘It is a huge honour and a big surprise to receive this award.

"It has been a pleasure to be the first gardener of The Hepworth Wakefield Garden and to have nurtured the garden through its infancy. This medal is a wonderful recognition of The Hepworth Wakefield’s bold vision to transform an unloved piece of ground into a free public garden.

"It is also a celebration of the role that a gardener can play in helping a place to thrive - for the community, creativity and nature. I feel that this honour ought to be shared with all the brilliant team that have been involved in creating and caring for the garden and to all the people who so generously supported our fundraising campaign to make the Garden a reality.

"I would particularly like to thank our volunteers who give their time so generously to help me with the day-to-day care of the space and to Tom Stuart-Smith for the beautiful design, which provides the year-round interest that we are all able to enjoy. We have exciting future plans for the garden to inspire and engage more people with the wonder or nature.”

Perminderjeet (Pam) Kaur Banwait BEM

Pam Banwait, 40, is the multi award-winning founder and managing director of Banwait Group Holdings, which owns and operates Strong Life Care Ltd.

Under her management, she established four care homes for the elderly in Yorkshire and increased bed capacity by 400 per cent within the first 16 months to ensure full CQC compliance for residential care homes.

Each of her care homes is one of the largest employers in the area, and her unique commitment to diverse, inclusive, and truly equal opportunities of recruitment has allowed her to build a workforce that is representative of the population served.

Since 2014, she has recruited 65 people from disadvantaged backgrounds and commits to protect 20 per cent of employment positions for victims of domestic abuse or from deprived backgrounds.

Pam provides opportunities to those who need it most and fully supports them to integrate back into the workplace. She identifies a person’s skills and aspirations and provides the required training and confidence to help them be successful.

She has worked with homes to host events to fulfil a resident’s last wish, encouraging the local community to engage and be involved.

She has created the ‘Recruit with Residents’ initiative which gives residents the opportunity to be involved in the recruitment process for new staff. This mutually beneficial strategy positively impacts staff, residents and their families.

She has established a Staff Welfare Fund, which is used to support staff members during financial distress or pressures in personal circumstances.

This fund has invested in several members of staff to date resulting in better quality of life for the women and their families.

In addition, she has established a Staff Welfare Officer role, which not only offers mental health and wellbeing support to her own staff, but also to the wider healthcare community and staff in competing care homes.

Her voluntary activity within the community is far reaching with 2.5 per cent of company profits designated for good causes.

She works with local charities: she raised £13,500 for Barnsley Hospice and collected food cans for a local dog’s shelter.

Seasonal events organised by her include a scarecrow competition and elaborate Christmas decorations, which have a positive impact on the community and residents.

She has ambitions to become the first carbon neutral care home operator and she has initiatives which encourage staff to reduce their carbon footprint.

Pam said: “It was a huge surprise when I was informed of my upcoming Honours.

"I am really passionate about Health & Social Care and supporting people. In my women’s network I ensure my network tries to reach a diverse range of people from various backgrounds, mainly disadvantaged women.

"There are many people who are unable to be heard, it is essential that as a business women I ensure their voices are heard.

“I have every confidence that continuing my work with the support of my teams, we can ensure that opportunities for disadvantaged people are truly equal opportunities.”

Deputy Prime Minister, Rt Hon. Oliver Dowden MP, said: “This year’s honours list is a testament to ordinary people who have demonstrated extraordinary community spirit, and I pay tribute to all those from Yorkshire and Humberside who have been recognised today.

“Our honours system has long been a way of recognising people who make an incredible contribution to life in Britain and beyond.

“We are now focussed on levelling up the system to ensure it represents the length and breadth of the country, and I hope that the fantastic stories this year ensure more regional nominations in the future.”