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‘This isn't very typical I'm afraid’: observing community care complaints procedures
Author(s) -
Dean Hartley,
Gale Keir,
Woods Roger
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2524.1996.tb00080.x
Subject(s) - redress , diversity (politics) , style (visual arts) , public relations , perception , social welfare , welfare , mechanism (biology) , social care , political science , psychology , sociology , social psychology , business , medicine , nursing , epistemology , law , history , archaeology , neuroscience , philosophy
The new complaints procedures which local authority social services departments have been required to introduce represent an important mechanism for managing the change of culture associated with recent community care reforms. They also represent a new genre in mechanisms of redress for welfare recipients. This paper reports the findings of a study which has observed considerable diversity in the ways in which local authorities are interpreting the nature and purposes of the new procedures and, in particular, the functions of review panels established under those procedures. Variations in the composition of panels, in the style of review panel proceedings, in perceptions of the panels' powers, and in the ways that complaints and complainants are constituted are all discussed. Attention is drawn to four competing interpretations of the review panels' role and to the need for these to be clarified and prioritised.