Complaining about complaints: an exploration of family carers’ experiences of raising complaints with local authority adult social care departments in relation to adults with learning disabilities.

Background: Challenging complaint processes can deter people from raising concerns, undermining the feedback culture necessary for service quality and improvement. Evidence from healthcare suggests complaints can be perceived negatively by services, damaging trust between professionals and complainants. This is particularly problematic in an adult social care context where family carers of adults with learning disabilities can have longstanding and difficult relationships with local authorities affecting their physical and mental wellbeing. Little is known about the experience of making complaints to local authorities which is a considerable gap within social care research. We know family carers think it is important professionals understand more about their experiences. Aims and objectives: This project aims to understand how family carers of adults with learning disabilities and local authority staff experience adult social care complaint processes and co-produce resources to share this understanding widely. The project addresses the following questions: How do family carers of adults with learning disabilities experience making a complaint to their local authority adult social care department? How do local authority staff interpret and respond to complaints from members of the public? What aspects of their complaint experiences do family carers feel require better understanding and improvement by local authorities? Methods: A three-step method, developed from pre-project public engagement work, will be used with family carers (n=20). This involves narrative interviews enabling participants to share their stories with minimal interruption (step 1), initial analysis of interview data and mapping key parts of participants experiences to a timeline (step 2), and follow-up interviews for participants to review and amend timelines and provided further detail where appropriate (step 3). Local authority staff (n=20) will take part via focus groups. Three co-production workshops, involving family carers and local authority staff, will be used to sense-check findings, identify critical implications and key areas where understanding can be strengthened, and to co-produce a set of visual resources for local authorities and the wider public. Timelines for delivery: The 22-month project has 4 stages. Phase 1 (months 1-4): a rapid scoping review and outreach recruitment work. Phase 2 (months 5-12): Interviews with family carers and data analysis. Phase 3 (months 12-15): focus groups with local authority staff and data analysis. Phase 4 (months 15-22): co-production workshops, finalising project outputs and dissemination. All Phases will involve close collaboration with project partners and the Project Advisory Groups. Anticipated impact and dissemination: The research will share understanding and raise awareness about how family carers and local authority staff experience adult social care complaint processes. The co-produced resources, intended to quickly foster empathy and understanding and have a positive impact on how family carers are perceived and supported during complaint processes, will be shared widely with local authorities and university social work departments, with the aim of embedding change in organisational approaches.