Simon Knight

Simon initially studied for a sports degree, followed immediately by a post graduate certificate in youth and community work. His career progressed within social work, supporting extremely vulnerable children and young people: firstly as a young people's support worker and then managing a children’s home. Having survived this he made the jump back to community education, as a senior Community Learning and Development worker, leading generic community work and specialist youth work teams in community and secondary school settings.

During his own time, he campaigned against increasing restrictions on young people’s free movement in public spaces and started a part-time PhD in Education (University of Strathclyde). His thesis explores childhood freedoms, licences and their impact on developing selfhood. Further study resulted in a PgCert in Strategic Leadership (Glasgow Caledonian University). Simon also served as a Play Scotland board member for around 10 years.

He left local authority employment in 2019 and since then has been self-employed, supervising and assessing Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions and working with Glasgow Community Food Network to address food insecurity during the Covid lockdown.

For his sins, Simon still leads a Glaswegian Beaver Scout colony every Tuesday evening. This ‘challenge’ is in fact great fun!