CHILDREN AS COMPLAINANTS IN THE HEALTH AND PERSONAL SOCIAL SERVICES IN NORTHERN IRELAND

3 THE METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH

The resources available for this permitted a multi-method approach comprising four main elements noted below, further details on each method follow later in this section.

1) Analysis of administrative data held by the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety.

2) A survey by telephone and post of HPSS Trust complaints staff in Northern Ireland seeking information on how complaints by or about children and young people are dealt with (the results are reported in Sections 5 & 6 of this report)

3) A postal survey of potential child advocacy organisations to establish the availability of independent advocacy services for children and young people who may need them (results are reported in Section 8 of this report)

4) Semi-structured telephone interviews were carried out with lay people involved in the health and social services complaints in Northern Ireland (these are reported in Section 7 of this report)

It was not possible within the confines of the resources made available for the study to also interview children, young people and/or their parents who had made complaints although this would have provided a very important perspective on the issues involved. It would have been a costly and time consuming piece of research.

Survey of HPSS Trust Complaints Staff

All 19 Trusts were phoned by a researcher and asked to post out a copy of their complaints leaflet(s). All Trusts responded within ten days. Questionnaires were then sent out on 31st May 2001 to 19 HPSS trusts (see Annex 1 for a copy of the questionnaire). Persistent and extensive follow-up calls were required for questionnaires which were not returned as requested at the end of July. Phone calls were made to each non-replying organisation at least once a week, sometimes twice. In five cases organisations claimed they had not received the questionnaire and repeat questionnaires were then faxed or emailed to the five Trusts concerned. By mid- September three Trusts had still not replied and a third copy of the questionnaire was sent to them again on 25th September. By mid-October, 17 out of 19 trusts had replied, a response rate of 89%. No questionnaires were received from Newry and Mourne and Armagh and Dungannon Trusts. See Table 4.1 for more detail on response rates.

Table 4.1.HPSS Trust Response Rates

The Advocacy Survey

Potential and actual advocacy organisations were identified from a mailing list supplied by The Children's Law Centre. 91 organisations (voluntary, public and private, see Annex 4) which might provide advocacy services for children, were written to and asked to fill in a short proforma and supply any relevant information on their organisation. A total of 36 organisations replied to this first letter giving a 39% response rate but after a follow-up letter was sent to the remainder on September 25th the response rate was boosted to 49 or 54%.

Key respondent telephone interview.

Wilson System Complaints

The four Health Boards were very helpful in supplying names and addresses of independent panel members involved in the Wilson procedure. All fifty independent panel members involved in the Wilson Procedure within the four Boards were written to in August asking for their agreement to a telephone interview. Fifteen individuals agreed to be interviewed (a 36% consent rate) although susbsequently only 12 were actually available for interview (a 24% participation rate).

Children Order Complaints

Trusts wished to first contact the individuals involved with their panels, to ask their permission before passing on their contact details. These thirty individuals were written to and six agreed to be interviewed (20% consent rate).

Five Trusts would not or claimed they could not identify the lay individuals used in their Children Order complaints system. The fieldwork process thus revealed a greater degree of secrecy and confusion surrounding the Children Order complaints system and procedures compared with the Wilson system predominantly used by and for adults.

In total 18 interviews were held with key informants involved in either the Wilson or the Children Order HPSS complaints systems. These included lay panel members, panel chairs and Board convenors.