An international workshop funded by the European Science Foundation (ESF) was organised at the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) in Brussels on 21 March. The delegates comprised those who helped put the guidelines together as well as senior clinicians, academics, NGO leaders and government ministers from 13 countries. We were especially pleased to welcome Dr Vesna Knjeginjić, Assistant to the Minister (Public Health), Ministry of Health, Republic of Serbia, who spoke about plans to use our guidelines as a reference point in developing a national strategy for cleft care in Serbia. We have recently been working on projects in Serbia (see below) and it was gratifying to know we have the government’s full support. Other keynote speakers were Maitane Olabarria from CEN and Nicola Bedlington, Director of the European Patient Forum. The afternoon session focused on implementation and how we can get our guidelines adopted by governments, medical schools and healthcare providers. We are keen to press ahead with an implementation strategy and we plan to organise further meetings where we will look at practical steps that can be undertaken by delegates present at the Brussels meeting. We were due to take a delegation to the European Parliament the following day but the terrorist attacks prevented this happening. We will press for another date.