Annette has spent more than 30 years committed to working to improve health inequality. She has worked as a research fellow, managed NHS and 3rd sector front-line health services, and worked in national policy and in Whitehall. Since 2015, Annette has a portfolio career including an independent consultancy company specialising in not-for-profit business and organisational development and community development. She is a recognised national expert in Addictions and a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) advising government on drug policy. She co-chairs the ACMD Recovery Committee and regularly brief ministers. She is also a trustee of two charities: AdFam and a new peer-led organisation Build on Belief (BoB) and a Director of Choices Consortium.
Annette was Strategic Director of Addiction and Offender Care for Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust from 2009-2014. This role included growing the portfolio £25 to 45million and overseeing drug and alcohol treatment services for over 10,000 service users a year and offender health care in over 12 prisons. Prior to this Annette was an Executive Director (of Quality) for 6 years at the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA), responsible for overseeing the expansion of drug treatment in England from 2001. Her remit in this post involved development of national guidance; running the national standards and inspection programmes; managing grants on behalf of government departments; and national workforce development. Prior to this she has been: Director of Policy for DrugScope: the national umbrella charity for drug misuse; and a research fellow at Imperial College, University of London, evaluating substance misuse and public health services. She has a background in psychology and worked as a practitioner, co-ordinating a community detoxification project for heroin misusers and working in residential rehabilitation units.