Simon Duffy
Simon is a well known social innovator and writer who is working to redesign the current welfare system so that it will better support citizenship and strengthen our community life.
Simon is best known for defining key concepts such as Individual Budgets, Self-Directed Support, the Citizenship Model and many others. He is the author of Keys to Citizenship and many articles and papers. He now runs The Centre for Welfare Reform.
Simon has found a number of ways of putting his ideas into practice. He founded and led In Control from 2003 to 2009. He also founded Shop4Support.com and Altrum. From 2000 to 2003 Simon worked as Director of Consultancy for Paradigm leading on Person-Centred Planning and Self-Directed Support. In 1996 he founded the service provider Inclusion Glasgow to provide radically individualised support to people leaving institutional care. From 1990 to 1994 Simon led early experiments in individual funding and brokerage within Southwark Consortium (now Choice Support).
Simon began his career as an NHS Management Trainee at the King’s Fund College, London. He was a Harkness Fellow in 1994 where he researched inclusive education and welfare reform in J. F. Kennedy Centre in Denver, Colorado. In 2001 Simon obtained his doctorate in moral philosophy from the University of Edinburgh with a thesis arguing for the objectivity of morality. In 2007 Simon was awarded the RSA’s Prince Albert Medal for his contribution to Social Innovation. In 2011 the Social Policy Association gave Simon an award for making an outstanding contribution to social policy. He is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Health Services Management Centre.
Simon lives in Sheffield with his wife Nicola and their son Jacob. Simon loves skiing, windsurfing, cycling, running, gardening, and trying to learn Latin.