James Parker

James joined The Forward Trust in 2013 as Head of Services after having a variety of positions working across the social care and substance misuse treatment spectrum since 1991, when he started as a practitioner. He has had extensive experience of working within statutory services in the NHS, and also in the voluntary sector delivering criminal justice and treatment services in the community. Prior to his arrival at The Forward Trust he had been part of successful tender applications for prison and community tender and he has carried on this work with Forward Trust, and was an integral part of the team that won the East Kent contract and retained the Kent prisons contract. He brings a combination of operation and organisational experience and has greatly enjoyed learning about the delivery component of prison-based substance misuse services. Having helped so many clients to achieve their recovery goals in his career he brings this enthusiasm and desire to provide the right environment to facilitate change to his approach to service design and operational management of the services he oversees. Working for The Forward Trust has helped him to achieve his own ambitions to develop into a strategic leader shaping the way services are delivered, and he wants to help deliver and design services that place this aspiration of helping others achieve their goals at the heart of all that we do.