Background: Learning disability services must include the people who use them (individuals and their families/carers) in service commissioning, planning and delivery (Department of Health 2012. "Transforming care: A national response to Winterbourne View Hospital. Department of Health review: Final report"). One group of important stakeholders in learning disability services are the family members and carers of people with a learning disability. The aim of this study was to explore how family members experienced their involvement with one Assessment and Treatment Unit, with a view to shaping future service developments. Materials and Methods: Qualitative methods were employed to explore family members' lived experiences. Four participants, all parents of service users, took part in semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Analysis elicited four master themes under which subordinate themes clustered. The master themes were as follows: "Admission as traumatic, a relief, or both," "Negotiating a new role," "Valued features of the unit" and "Negative experiences." Conclusions: The findings have implications for learning disability services and future research. Findings are discussed with relevance to strengths, limitations, wider literature and policies driving learning disability services.