Benefit groups and resource groups for adults with intellectual disabilities in residential accommodation

Service commissioning is now a more formalized activity, and both purchaser s and providers employ a variety of tools to inform their decision-making. The present paper examines whether 'benefit groups' and 'resource groups' c an be developed so as to assist these decision-making processes by using a survey of the characteristics of 2093 adults with intellectual disabilities (IDs) in residential accommodation (mainly National Health Service trusts) , and a supplementary collection of data on service utilization and costs ( for a subsample of 930 clients). The clients were classified, according to their needs into benefit groups (BGs), and the services which they used wer e classified in terms of coherence as likely packages of care and similar c onsumption of resources as resource groups (RGs). It proved possible to con struct nine BGs and 96 possible RGs which had both intuitive meaning and ex planatory power. Statistical analysis showed that the resulting BGs and RGs are meaningful ways of classifying ID and challenging behaviour needs and costs.