Born and raised on a council estate in Leeds, Scott’s journey has been anything but ordinary. A working-class, state school-educated, Free School Meals recipient, his earliest passion was for classical music – a love that carried him far beyond the boundaries of his postcode. Against the odds, Scott trained at some of the world’s leading conservatoires with renowned concert pianists, navigating the entrenched class barriers of the classical music world. The Yorkshire Post named him the “Leeds Piano Man”, yet his ambitions soared beyond the piano, embracing a stage far larger than music alone.

 

Determined to tackle the inequalities he had experienced first-hand, Scott shifted his focus from performance to research and policy – dedicating his career to research, policy and social mobility.

 

After graduating with First Class Honours from UCL, he earned his Master’s at Cambridge University, then completed his PhD at King’s College London as a UKRI Economic and Social Research Council scholar. His doctoral research broke new ground by examining how working-class, state-schooled students enter UK Music Conservatoires. It captured national attention, making Scott one of the first working-class academic voices to publicly challenge the status quo in UK conservatoires – with features in The Guardian, The Times, Classic FM, and the BBC.

 

What began as a focus on access to education quickly grew into a wider mission: understanding how real social mobility happens, and how policy can move beyond rhetoric to create genuine change. Today, Scott serves as Lead Policy Officer for Education, Culture, and Skills at the City of London, is an Ambassador for the Foundation for Education Development, and advises organisations across the UK, including the University of Cambridge, on research and policy. He is also the founding Director of the CREATE Centre, an independent institute uniting stakeholders across education, the arts, technology, and the environment to advance the United Nations SDGs and build fairer, more sustainable futures ahead of the 2030 deadline.

 

He drives change through co-produced policy and rigorous research, informed by lived experience and grounded in the stories of those still on the journey he once took himself.