Amber James
Head of Resource and Partnerships
Amber joined Hampshire County Council as a disabled children’s social worker in 2001, and has undertaken a number of progressive roles for Children’s Services during her 18 year employment with the Authority. She is currently Head of Resource and Partnerships.
Amber qualified as a social worker in 2000 with a BA (Hons) Health and Social Care, Diploma in Social Work and Learning Disability Nursing. Before qualifying, 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 the 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 her current role, Amber has been the Head of Resource and Partnerships since January 2017, responsible for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight’s adoption, fostering, residential children’s homes, disabled children’s home, secure children’s home, Youth Offending Team and the Secure Welfare Co-ordination Unit commissioned by the DfE.