Modernising placements – achieving the right care for children at the right time

Having joined Hampshire County Council as a disabled children’s social worker in 2001, Amber James has undertaken a number of roles for children’s services during her 20-year employment with the authority.

Before qualifying as a social worker in 2000, she spent six years working as a support worker with young adults with learning disabilities in a hospital environment and then in a residential community home. Before joining Hampshire County Council, and after qualifying, Amber was a disabled children’s social worker for West Sussex County Council.   

Her roles at Hampshire have included an appointment as a senior practitioner and then team manager before being seconded to the post of social care IT service manager, working on developing the requirements of a new social care IT system. After this, Amber took responsibility, as a senior manager, for integrated placements - managing the in-house fostering service (for both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Council), the placement commissioning team and the secure welfare coordination unit (for England and more recently Wales too). In January 2017, Amber moved to be head of resource and partnerships, responsible for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s adoption, fostering, youth offending, residential children’s homes, disabled children’s homes, secure children’s home and the Secure Welfare Co-ordination Unit commissioned by the Department for Education. Since November 2019 she has been seconded from this role to lead on the Modernising Placements Programme, part of Hampshire Children’s Services’ transformational journey.

Dr Stephany Carolan is a Principal Consultant working in HCC children’s services. She led on the development of the Business Case for our Modernising Placements Programme. Stephany has over 20 years of experience working at a senior level with organisations in the health, social care and community sectors. She has a PhD in psychology and a research interest in digital health.