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Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

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From promise to progress: closing the healthy weight implementation gap

Nesta at Scottish National Party Conference

In A healthy life

12 Oct 2025

With the publication of the 10 Year Population Health Framework and Good Food Nation plan, our panel explored how we turn these policy promises into meaningful progress on increasing healthy weight.

We deep-dived into what has stopped policy ambitions being delivered to date. We explored the need for bold action on the highest impact policies, the importance of collaboration across government, industry and wider civil society, and the need to embrace innovation using test and learn approaches to help us go further, and faster, in improving food environments.

Frances Bain, Mission Manager at Nesta's healthy life mission was joined by an expert panel consisting of Jenni Minto MSP, Minister for Public Health and Women's Health, David Thomson, Chief Executive Officer at the Food and Drink Federation Scotland, and Jon Roden, Spokesperson at the Non Communicable Disease Alliance. The event was chaired by Pennie Taylor, an award-winning freelance journalist and broadcaster who specialises in health and care issues.

Frances Bain

She/her

Frances is Nesta’s mission manager for Scotland working on the healthy life mission and based with the Scotland team in Edinburgh. Frances joins Nesta from Paths for All, a Scottish charity focused on supporting behaviour change and environmental improvements to increase physical activity. She developed and managed national programmes delivered in partnership with local authorities, health boards, third-sector organisations and communities. She was also involved in delivering and shaping public health policy at a national and local level. Frances has also worked at Sustrans as the active travel programme manager for Scotland, for the national waste awareness campaign at Keep Scotland Beautiful and as an environmental project officer in a local authority. Outside work, she can usually be found outside running, biking, climbing or kayaking in the highlands and the Cairngorms National Park, where she's lucky enough to live.

Jenni Minto MSP

She/her

Jennifer Margot Minto is a Scottish National Party politician who has been the Member of the Scottish Parliament for Argyll and Bute since 2021. She has been serving as Minister for Public Health and Women's Health since March 2023.

David Thomson

He/him

David is CEO at the Food & Drink Federation Scotland, and Director of Strategy & Devolved Nations at the Food & Drink Federation. He previously worked at the Scottish Government, including five years as Head of Food, Drink and Rural Communities, and two as Head of Primary Care.

Pennie Taylor

She/her

Pennie Taylor is an award-winning freelance journalist and broadcaster who specialises in health and care issues. A passionate promoter of innovation, she was BBC Scotland’s first Health Correspondent and has also worked on the newsdesks of a number of national newspapers as well as being a former Head of Communications for a large NHS Trust.

Jon Roden

He/him

Jon is Policy and Public Affairs Manager for British Heart Foundation and also spokesperson for the Non Communicable Disease Alliance Scotland. The Alliance is a coalition of health organisations reducing the health burden of non-communicable diseases through action on alcohol, tobacco, and high fat, salt and sugar products.

From promise to progress: closing the healthy weight implementation gap

About Nesta

From promise to progress: closing the healthy weight implementation gap