Background
Ghosh was born in Farnborough, Hampshire in 1956, to a civil service scientist and a librarian.
director head secretary civil servant
Ghosh was born in Farnborough, Hampshire in 1956, to a civil service scientist and a librarian.
She was educated at Farnborough Hill, an all-girls independent Catholic school. She studied modern history at Street Hugh"s College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Bachelor) degree in 1976. She then undertook postgraduate study at Hertford College, Oxford, graduating with a Master of Letters (Master of Letters) in 1980.
Her thesis concerned the history of Italy in the 6th century.
She was formerly a British civil servant, and until November 2012 was Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, having moved from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) at the end of 2010. At the time of her appointment at Defra, she was the only female permanent secretary to head a major department of the British Government. Ghosh joined the Department of the Environment in 1979 as an Administration Trainee and held a series of policy roles.
She was appointed Private Secretary to the Minister for Environment and Housing in 1986-1988 and Head of the Housing Policy and Home Ownership Team in 1992.
In July 1995, she joined the Cabinet Office on loan as Deputy Director of the Efficiency Unit then moved to a more operationally focused role in 1997 in the Government Office for London, where she worked as Director for London East and European Programmes, which brought her into contact with a variety of European Union bodies, in particular those administering regeneration funds. Between May 1999 and November 1999, she was Head of the New Deal for Communities Programme at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, working on cross-cutting and delivery issues.
She then joined the Department for Work and Pensions as Director of the Children"s Group, which had responsibility for child benefit, child support, child poverty issues and the Tax Cr Programme. She rejoined the Cabinet Office on 22 October 2001, as Head of Central Secretariat and, in 2003, became Director General for Corporate Services at Her Majesty Revenue & Customs (HMRC), where she played an important part in the transformation programme merging the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise to form the new department.
She was appointed Permanent Secretary at Defra on 7 November 2005.
She replaced Sir David Normington as Permanent Secretary at the Home Office in January 2011. On 13 August 2012 it was announced that she would be stepping down from her role at the Home Office to become Director General at the National Trust. She took up the post on 12 November 2012.
In 2007 Ghosh joined the Board of the National School for Government (closed 31 March 2012).
Helen Ghosh is chair of the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust, based in Oxford.