When Derbyshire County PCT and local GPs (Buxton Commissioning Group) got together with partners in the Buxton area to redesign services around the needs of the local population they chose Catalyze to help them fully understand and evaluate the options available. The goal of the Healthy Buxton Project is to provide the people of Buxton with services and facilities that meet the healthcare needs of the local population in the 21st century.

Having consulted widely with the people of Buxton the preference for a 'merged and outreach' service model with a main site on the edge of town and an outreach site in the town centre was favoured. However, the selection of the preferred option for development remained one of the most important parts of the whole project. The potential for disagreement between stakeholders in the project was great, as was the potential for challenges to the decision if it was viewed as ill-conceived. Making the wrong choice at this point could also result in future costs being higher than they need to be or future services not being as good as they could be: something everyone wished to avoid.

Catalyze helped by first getting all stakeholders to agree the criteria that would be used to evaluate each option and then, through a series of Decision Conference workshops, facilitated a discussion to score and weight each of the options against these criteria. During these workshops various scenarios were discussed and participants were able to explore concerns, test ideas and gain a shared understanding of each development option.

The process allowed the Healthy Buxton project team to arrive at a shortlist of development options that aligned with public opinion and could be robustly supported by the healthcare professionals

The subsequent detailed costing and configuration of the proposed facilities was then able to take place safe in the knowledge that everyone is in agreement that this is the best way forward for the people of Buxton.