Helen Edwards

Helen Edwards (born 2 August 1953) is a British civil servant, currently serving as the Director-General for Localism in the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Career Having originally trained and worked as a social worker for East Sussex County Council, Edwards worked for the Save the Children Fund in the London Borough of Lambeth from 1980 to 1983. She then spent 18 years working at Nacro, the national crime reduction charity, where she undertook a variety of roles, ending up as Chief Executive. She left this role in 2013, and was replaced by Antonia Romeo.

Edwards took up her role as Director General for Localism for the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on 7 May 2013, replacing David Prout.

As of 2015, Edwards was paid a salary of between £165,000 and £169,999 by DCLG, making her one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.

In April 2016, Edwards took up the role of chair of a new group of charities called Recovery Focus, which brings together a coalition of mental health and substance use charities such as Richmond Fellowship and Aquarius.

On 12 November 2019, she was appointed a non-executive director of South London NHS Foundation Trust and began work in March 2020.

Personal life Edwards has a BA in social science from the University of Sussex and an MA and CQSW from the University of Warwick,