Ranald Mair, from Ayrshire, has been awarded an OBE in recognition of his services to the care sector

I’ve been working in care for nearly 50 years.

For the last decade, I’ve been the CEO of Scottish Care, the representative body for independent social care services in Scotland.

In this position, I have been heavily involved in the development and funding of care services for adults and older people.

Throughout my career, I’ve strived to ensure people are safely and well cared for. I really believe that it is important that providers are delivering the very highest level of care. It’s important that we only deliver care services as we would want for ourselves or our loved ones.

Despite huge progress, there are still many important battles to be won for disabled people in Scotland

Ranald Mair

I’ve also taken part in a number of Scottish Government working groups, including the development of the National Dementia Strategy, and the Review of the National Care Standards.

As I see it, the goal is to achieve consistency between public policy, resource allocation and practice, with the rights and interests of those who use services at the heart of all that goes on.

Recently, I joined the board of international charity, Leonard Cheshire Disability, as I wanted to look at an aspect of care which I hadn’t previously been involved in before, which is working with disabled people.

Leonard Cheshire is the largest voluntary sector provider of services for disabled people in the UK. Our services include high-quality care and community support as well as projects supporting disabled people into education, employment and entrepreneurship.

Worldwide, our global alliance of partners supports disabled people into education and employment in more than 50 countries.

Despite huge progress, there are still many important battles to be won for disabled people in Scotland. Equality of opportunity and the chance to contribute fully to society are pivotal in realising the full potential of disabled people across our country.

Unfortunately, we’re not there yet and we still have a distance to travel to ensure that everyone has equality of opportunity in life.

Since becoming a trustee of Leonard Cheshire Disability in September 2016, I have taken on the London Marathon on their behalf, running 26 miles and raising nearly £2,000 for disabled people in the process.

It’s an honour to receive the OBE. I see myself as accepting this award on behalf of the thousands of people who do inspirational work in the social care sector every day. This OBE is a reflection of the importance of the social care sector and the key role it plays in many people’s lives.

My colleagues, friends and family all got in touch to congratulate me after I received my OBE. But my favourite reaction came from my seven-year-old granddaughter, Catrina. She’s a big fan of the Star Wars films, and has now started calling me ‘grandad OBE Kenobi!'