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This paper aims to examine the prevalence and reasons for delayed discharge from two regional assessment and treatment units (ATUs) for people with learning disabilities, in line with the transforming care agenda.

This is a retrospective evaluation of 44 admissions and discharges from two ATUs from February 2019 to March 2022.

Of 44 admissions who were discharged during the included period, 20 experienced delays in their discharge. Delayed discharges occurred despite the two ATUs meeting standards for length of assessment and treatment as specified by the Learning Disability Professional Senate. The most prevalent reasons for discharge delays were identification of a new placement, recruitment of care staff and building work.

This paper offers an in-depth evaluation of recent delayed discharges from two regional ATUs, highlighting the most common reasons for delays and offering suggestion for reducing delays in future.

There are no existing tools to capture resources needed to support people with intellectual disability in an inpatient setting on an individual patient basis. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a new tool called Universal Needs Based Resource Assessment (UNBRA).

Using the Delphi method, focus groups were used to generate factors determining resource use. From these, themes were identified, a scoring system was created and the UNBRA tool was developed. This was piloted in two NHS inpatient units and modified following feedback.

The UNBRA tool holistically assesses resource requirements of an individual with intellectual disability supported in an inpatient setting. It considers ten factors grouped into the six themes of staffing, indirect work, clinical/ multi-disciplinary work, incidents, carer link activity and discharge process. UNBRA scores allow intra- and interpersonal comparison as well as comparison between units and can support resource allocation and operational decision-making.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no suitable existing tool to capture individual resource requirements of patients in intellectual inpatient settings. The development of the UNBRA tool fills this gap.