OBEs for care home trust CEO and Oscar-nominated director Paul Greengrass

Dan Hayes, CEO of The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT), received the award for his services to the social care sector.

OSJCT is one of the UK’s leading not-for-profit care providers and manages 16 care homes in Oxfordshire while providing care services in nine extra care house schemes in the county.

Dan, from Thame, joined OSJCT 19 years ago as HR Manager and progressed within the organisation through to his appointment as Chief Executive in 2015.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to receive this recognition, but also clear that the award would not have been made if I hadn’t been fortunate enough to spend my social care career with OSJCT. It’s my great good fortune to represent literally thousands of OSJCT colleagues who deserve similar recognition for what they continue to do, and who have carried me to the honour.

"In the truest sense, this OBE is for them, and it is in recognition of the lives they make better through their love and professionalism every day.”

Dan strongly believes the social care workforce should be adequately recognised and renumerated, and has been pivotal in lobbying key stakeholders, including Government, for reforms.

Dan is also a Board Director of the National Care Forum which promotes quality care and advocates with Government departments and the media on behalf of the sector.

Oscar-nominated film director Paul Greengrass has been awarded an OBE for services to the Arts.

The 66-year-old, who is based in Henley, has directed three of the five films in the Jason Bourne spy franchise, based on the novels by Robert Ludlum and starring Matt Damon.

He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras.

His also directed The Murder Of Stephen Lawrence, 2002’s Bloody Sunday about the 1972 shootings in Derry, Northern Ireland, and United 93, a film based on the 11 September 2001 hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93, which earned him a BAFTA and a best director Oscar nomination.

He also directed Hollywood A-lister Tom Hanks in 2013’s Captain Phillips, which was based on the real-life 2009 hijacking of an American cargo ship by Somalian pirates.

Greengrass first worked as a director in the 1980s, for the ITV current affairs programme World in Action.

At the same time he co-authored the book Spycatcher (1987) with Peter Wright, former assistant director of MI5. It contained enough sensitive information that the British Government made an unsuccessful attempt to ban it.

In 2007, he co-founded Directors UK, a professional association for British directors.

Despite a few blockbusters under his belt, his 1999 TV film about the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence is still regarded as one of his most acclaimed projects.

He told BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs about the “enormous responsibility” attached to projects like that when you are a director.

“I remember showing Doreen Lawrence that film and I remember telling her ‘It’s going to be quite difficult, because there is a scene where… well, we had discussed in advance, you are going to see a character called Stephen in a desperate situation and I hope that’s OK’.

“She fixed me with the most steely look and said: ‘There’s nothing you can show that will be the remotest bit like what I experienced, so you don’t be sensitive on my account. It’s people out there that have to understand the truth’.

“And you see that time and time again, it’s us that don’t want to see the truth, it’s us for whom these stories are too soon, it’s us who don’t want to be confronted with the details.

“Now that’s not to say sensitivity and discretion isn’t part of it, but we should never forget that this is part of our world and those who are the victims demand to be heard, always.”

Dr Mick Donegan, who has been awarded an MBE, is the founder and director of SpecialEffect, a charity based in Cornbury Park, near Charlbury, which uses specialised technology to enhance access to videogames and creative self-expression for people with a wide range of disabilities.

His work with computer technologies like eye-control and brain control has helped everyone from wounded servicemen to children with life-limiting conditions to enjoy a better quality of life. Many of those he supports have very complex disabilities, including locked-in syndrome.

In April 2018, after three years of development, SpecialEffect launched the world’s first free-to-play interface which enables even the most severely disabled young people all over the world to play the universally popular game, Minecraft, by gaze control alone.

In May of that year, Mick’s charity launched ‘Eye Gaze Games’, which is a suite of free-to-play online games for people whose only form of control is their eye movement. As a result, disabled people, wherever they are, will be able to meet and compete at chess, draughts and many other games with anyone, anywhere in the world.

Mick has been involved in several highly regarded and influential projects, has published widely and won many awards for his work.

He told website IdeaMensch why he was so passionately enthusiastic about cutting-edge technologies such as eye-gaze and brain control.

Mick said: "I cannot help sharing an intense feeling of frustration – the closest word I can find to express the emotion is anger – on behalf of the many people who have severe disabilities and are unable to communicate or control technology as quickly and effectively as they could, given the right technology and support -particularly those who cannot communicate independently at all.

"I’m driven by wanting to reduce the frequently HUGE shortfall between the limited amount that they can currently achieve and what they could potentially achieve. There are so many wonderful new developments in technology and so many wonderful people out there that I’m driven to do what I can to bring these technologies and people together to help those who need our help the most."