Simon Harding

Background

About Simon Harding

Social policy is tasked with improving the living conditions, well-being, and quality of life of a diverse range of people with different needs, goals, and values. This might seem a daunting task, but I find it a fascinating, inspiring and frequently challenging area in which to work. My work involves research, analysis, and writing that brings clarity to complex social policy issues for a range of audiences. I take a holistic, system-wide lens to generate recommendations to inform the design of social policies and programs. I want to contribute to evidence-informed social policies and programs that both generates results for end-users, helping them to live better, healthier, more fulfilling lives, and works for service providers, practitioners, and funders. My work has a strong focus on equity-seeking groups and people who are often poorly served by business-as-usual approaches. As a senior associate at Blueprint I focus on policy analysis, evidence reviews, jurisdictional scans, as well as more technical briefs and academic papers to support the generation and advancement of innovation that can help move the needle on skills development in Canada. This work draws extensively on my inter-disciplinary academic background, which enables me to interweave insights from a range of subject areas and methodological approaches. In my current role, I make major contributions to high-profile, public-facing reports for a range of clients, including all three levels of government and major service providers. Outside of work I can be found chasing much younger players around the soccer field, spending time in the great outdoors, and entertaining an energetic toddler. Specialties: Research, writing, analysis, evaluation, policy and program design, evidence reviews, jurisdictional scans, synthesis