Having started out in 2014–15, the delivery phases of the Innovation Programme and its successor schemes are approaching their end. Programme funding is expected to finish in March 2024, with the remaining evaluations reporting by 2027.46 The Department stresses that ring-fenced funding streams for innovation and learning are not indefinite, and that they want to see this activity shifted into mainstream funding and practice.47 The Department is confident that enough progress has been made, with sufficient positive gains in practice that the argument for continued investment in evidence-based policy should be easier to make.48 Hertfordshire County Council for instance highlighted experience it has already had supporting local authorities making invest to save bids for further work.49