Meet the management team

Hampshire County Council is led by an expert group of skilled men and women who are dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of Hampshire residents. Learn more about them below.

Graham Allen – director of adults’ health and care

Graham is Hampshire’s deputy chief executive and director of adults’ health and care. He was appointed in May 2016, having been an assistant director within adults’ services at Hampshire from January 2015. Graham qualified as a social worker in 1994, and has held a variety of practitioner and managerial roles, working both in criminal justice and, more latterly, social care.

Stuart Ashley – director, children and families

Stuart has worked for the council for over 25 years, having started as a social worker. He was appointed to assistant director for Hampshire children’s services in January 2016, after working at a senior level in the department since 2010. Stuart has also led the council’s strategic partnership work, improving children’s services at the Isle of Wight. He also heads up the Department for Education’s sector-led improvement work for Hampshire and the delivery of improvement support to a number of local authorities in the region.

Steph How – deputy director for Hampshire and Isle of Wight children’s services

Steph joined the council in 2003 as a senior practitioner and spent 18 months seconded to the Isle of Wight in the initial stages of Hampshire’s partnership with them in 2013. In February 2018, she became head of strategy, in March 2019 operations director for the east of Hampshire and has also been the strategic and operational lead for the transforming social care programme. She is now the deputy director for both Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Click here to learn more about her journey.

Jess Hutchinson – principal social worker, adults’ health and care

Jess is assistant director for young adults and principal social worker. She started out working as a volunteer for a young woman with physical disabilities and then supported people to move out of long-stay hospitals. She qualified as a social worker in 1998, working with people with learning disabilities, and has remained in Hampshire County Council in a range of management and leadership roles since then, having reached 25 years’ service this year.

Sarah Marston – area director (West)

Sarah has worked in Hampshire since 2009, joining the council initially as a team manager. Prior to joining Hampshire, much of her experience was in long-term child protection and court work. Since joining Hampshire, she has been able to gain a range of developmental and strategic experience, which has helped her enormously in progressing her career. She spent several years as the service manager for the multi-agency safeguarding hub, out of hours service and the Willow child exploitation team, before being promoted to area director in November 2021.

Sarah says she really enjoys working for Hampshire, seeing it as an authority that is forward thinking and always striving to achieve the best outcomes for children and families. She is proud to work for an outstanding local authority, one which supports, values, and develops staff, seeing her move to Hampshire as one of the best decisions of her career.