Programme Workshop Bridging the Gap: From Theory to Practice

The purpose was to bring the wider programme team together to discuss the initial recommendations and observations that the programme has identified. We also hosted two-panel discussions, the first with workstream leads focussing on how the programme could feed into ongoing and upcoming reviews e.g. Cunliffe review and next steps, and in the afternoon representatives from the programme’s regional tests discussed testing approaches and principles.

This was an excellent opportunity to build consensus on the recommendations and observations from the programme consider unintended consequences that could arise and network with key stakeholders. Highlights included discussions around how the programme would coalesce knowledge and disseminate findings and facilitate opportunity mapping at regional and national scales and actions on developing strategies for local authority engagement.

We’re now taking the outputs from this workshop into the MNbS workstreams and regional tests as we move towards socialising our draft emerging recommendations in April. We’ll be publishing a set of briefing notes, which we’ll be looking to share widely for stakeholders to review and feed back on, and then a set of regional testing plans helping us to ensure that we have a comprehensive set of recommendations to take into the initial MNbS testing phase in autumn 2025.