Sorry, love: Harrogate care home will use ‘darling’, despite CQC warning

Skills 4 Living centre to continue to use terms of endearment, while CQC says individual preferences must be respected

A carer holding a patient’s hand. Photograph: Terry Vine/Blend Images/Corbis

A Harrogate care home has vowed to continue using terms of endearment such as “love” and “darling” in spite of a warning from inspectors.

The Harrogate Skills 4 Living centre was told to improve its caring after inspectors from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) overheard carers using terms that “could be regarded as demeaning and patronising”.

Stephanie Kirkman Meikle, the chief executive of Harrogate Skills 4 Living, said on Tuesday that staff would not be banned from using terms of endearment such as “sweetie”, “darling”, “handsome” and “love”.

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