SUPPORTING carers and a career working for local government have earned two local women OBEs in the Queen's new year's honours list.

Qualified accountant, Amanda Deeks, from Lydney, is chief executive of South Gloucestershire Council, where she is responsible for more than 8,000 staff and a budget of about £200m. Previously, she was director of corporate resources and before that, joint director of planning and performance management at Herefordshire Council. She's also one of the founding members of the West of England Partnership, which links the work and aspiration of a number of unitary authorities in the South West.

"I am very humbled and honoured to be awarded an OBE," said Amanda. "I will be accepting it on behalf of all councillors and staff at South Gloucestershire Council in recognition of the council's achievements and our shared commitment to working in partnership with our neighbouring councils in the west of England."

Anne Roberts is chief executive of Crossroads, Britain's leading provider of support for carers and the people they care for.

Working from her home in Chepstow, Anne started by running a local scheme in the town for carers of people with dementia.

"I'd actually been working with my mother-in-law running a small residential home which gave me some real insight into the impact dementia had on people and their families."

During a stint as divisional manager for the south west, Anne set up the Forest of Dean Crossroads scheme, which also covers Herefordshire, while Chepstow amalgamated into South East Wales.

Crossroads Care now works with more than 35,000 individuals and their families to offer breaks for some of the six million people in Britain who care for others.

"We offer respite care and services to enable carers to have a short break," says Anne. "We also offer a range of other services including play schemes.

"It's been a difficult year and at a national level it's been tough raising charitable income, given the state of the economy. Looking to the year ahead we want to continue to press for more recognition for carers in the face of opportunities and challenges with the government's forthcoming health and social care green paper."

On the OBE, Anne said: "I was delighted and very flattered, but it is also, in many ways, recognition for Crossroads and the work all the team do at a national level. It's not an honour for me, but for Crossroads as a whole."