Luton Borough Council

Scott is currently the Principal Social Inclusion Manager within the Social Justice Unit in Luton Council. His team drives forward neighbourhood working, using an Asset-Based Community Development approach, shifting power and wealth to grassroot communities, supporting the VCFSE sector, funding, citizen mobilisation, community cohesion and reducing silo working between the NHS and communities. The team also manages the permanent Citizen’s Think and Do tank; the Fairness Taskforce. An innovative way of exploring how we support the most disadvantaged in the town, community leadership training and neighbourhood assemblies. Scott is the council’s lead for the GRT communities, LGBTIQ+ communities and White British community. He leads on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in a community setting. 

Scott previously worked for the civil service in DCMS and The National Lottery Community Fund; managing their public affairs, events and as an advisor to the Minister for Civil Society. He has also worked as an advisor to senior shadow cabinet ministers and former Prime Minister’s. He has worked for national charities including the Alzheimer’s Society, led volunteering programmes during the 2012 London Olympics and is a trained outdoor educator, having taught over 15,000 young people during his period working in education.

He is a community organiser and has founded a number of charities including a thriving community run community hub, which was threatened with closure by the council, Luton’s only LGBTIQ+ charity; Pride in Luton and covid-mutual groups supporting over 10,000 people during the pandemic. Scott has won multiple awards including  Luton’s Outstanding Citizen of the Year for his work in Covid, a Bedfordshire Hero award from HM Lord Lieutenant  for Bedfordshire and special awards for his work during Radio One’s Big Weekend when it came to Luton in 2024.

Chimeme Egbutah has worked in Local Government for over twenty years as a public health specialist. Her work entails focusing on the wider determinants of health, children and young people and more recently Public Health healthcare. Chimeme has experience in management and consulting, team building and strategic implementation of public health policies across non-traditional services such as Housing, Strategic Transport and Planning.  She has a good understanding of health improvement interventions; Implementing key policies that support the surveillance and monitoring of local public health and is confident in collaborating across various sectors, including private and voluntary sector. 

Locally, Chimeme is a Service Manager for Luton’s Public Health team.  Her portfolio includes leading and driving the Health Equity Town work as a Marmot Place, this includes ensuring that resident and under-served voices are influencing how public services are delivered.  She also supports the delivery of the Luton 2040 vision through the implementation of Luton’s Population Wellbeing Strategy and has co-written several strategic documents, relating to tackling health inequalities.  Most recently, the 2024 Annual Public Health Report on behalf of the Directors of Public Health.

Chimeme has a Bachelors of Science degree in Human Biology, a postgraduate Diploma in Health

Promotion and a Masters in Public Health focusing on Urban Renewal. Chimeme is an assessor for the UK Public Health Practitioner scheme and a Trustee for a local charity called Noah Enterprise. 

www.linkedin.com/in/chimemeegbutah

Bex is the programme manager for the Fairness Taskforce. Serving as the anchor point through which each piece is threaded, Bex acts as main point of contact for the National Lottery and all project partners, overseeing reports and budgets and keeping the project moving forward.

Bex also leads on the delivery of Fairness Taskforce events and developing the outcomes into strategy and systems change; as well as citizen activation programmes such as the Community Chest, Citizen Assemblies and Citizen Activation Month.

Bex's favourite fun fact is that they have actually moved to Luton twice! Originally from Yorkshire, work led Bex to Luton in 2017, then to New Zealand, Derbyshire, rural Scotland and back to Luton. Being a part of the Taskforce has meant an opportunity to work with and for the community that has welcomed them with open arms and to champion the many positives of Luton community life.

With a background that began in archaeology and heritage, Bex's shift into more community focused work has a solid foundation in the history and evolution of humanity, with a particular interest in the earliest evidence of people's sense of identity, compassion, and care for the community.  

With seventeen years of experience in community settings spanning from teenage years volunteering through to senior management at a London community centre before joining the Taskforce at the end of 2024, Bex has always been invested in building collaboration between people with different stories  and backgrounds, and in finding the common ground on which to build a more equal and connected future.