Table 2.

Description of participants

	Number	Description
Family carers	18	1 male and 17 females aged between 30 and 70. They came from all walks of life. Many had other caring responsibilities, for instance caring for elderly parents. Only 3 were known to be in employment at the start of their course: 1 full time and 2 part time (1 was about to be made redundant, partly due to the demands of caring responsibilities not allowing for sufficient flexibility demanded by employer)
Facilitators	3	1 male (late career), a consultant clinical psychologist. 2 females (early/mid‐career), principal psychologists. All working within community learning disability teams in an NHS Foundation Trust in the North East of England
Academic Researchers	2	1 female (late career), a university professor, with extensive experience of participatory approaches to research and also working with families as a community‐based teacher. 1 female (early career), a senior research assistant, with a clinical background in psychology and learning disability services