One of the strategies that could bring real change, but which the public sector generally under-utilises, is benchmarking developments. The private developer knows that it has to surpass its competitor to obtain market advantage. The advantage to the public sector is less clear as we have yet to fully use the lessons learnt through POE's to understand the impact of a good design on the people and policy factors described previously. However benchmarking against the best and most relevant that NHSScotland and its sister bodies have delivered, and in doing so learning from the work of others, is perhaps the single most helpful tool available to improve both the standard of care environment and the image of the NHS in the community.