Joseph Simon
Joseph Simon is one of the 2 co-officers of this Branch. Joseph is a carer and agent for his son who has got autism with severe learning disability. His son is 24 years old now. To be able to live semi-independently, he holds a combined personal budget from the Local Authority and from the Independent Living Fund as part of his self directed support. As his agent, Joseph employs support workers on his behalf to support him in his daily life.
Joseph joined the Committee because he wants to pass his vast experience dealing with autism and learning disability issues from the early childhood into the adulthood. Within the Committee he would like to work with other members; to help all people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ADS) to have the right kind of education and support to reach their full potential, to train people with ASD how to live and move safely within the community. He has been a member of the National Autistic Society for 18 years.
Joseph has been working on disability issues with the Local Authority for the past decade. In early years he worked closely with Children Services on a number of issues, including ones with special need education and transition. When his son left Children Services, he transferred his activities into Adult Social Care.
Joseph works with Cambridgeshire County Council Adult Social Care in many ways:
He is a member of the In Control reference group,
Learning Disability Partnership (LDP) Carers Network,
LDP Valuing People Implementation group (Cambridge City & South Group),
the newly established Cambridgeshire Multi-Agency ASD Consortium.
He is the vice-chair of the Carers Partnership Board.
He has made a number of presentations on Self Directed Support to Carers, Social Care professionals and County Councillors.
Joseph has a detailed knowledge of direct payments and personal budget/ self directed support, being part of the In control/Individualised Budget pilot study run with LDP. As his son’s agent, he is familiar with employment and payroll issues.
He is a founding director and vice–chair of the Cambridgeshire User Lead Organisation, a new emerging charity whose aim is to enable people with support needs to shape and direct the services that they need to live the life they choose.
He works closely with third party organisations providing care and advocacy services for disabled people (i.e. Speaking Up).
In his professional life, he is a molecular neurobiologist working for the University of Cambridge. Although his research activities are not directly connected to autism, he closely follows the current research on this field.
