Someone who turns up, sits down, and has all afternoon.
Our core visit is two hours, on the same day each week, with the same companion. What happens in those two hours is entirely up to the person we are visiting.
From £54 for two hoursPractical help included, never charged separately
A proper afternoon, in the chair by the window
For many of the people we visit, the difficulty is not that they cannot manage. It is that the days are quiet and long, and nobody has asked them a question since Sunday.
A Good Company visit is unhurried and led by them. Some weeks it is two hours of talking. Some weeks it is a jigsaw finished in silence, a pile of photographs gone through, or a shepherd's pie made and eaten at the table together instead of alone in front of the television.
- Conversation, tea, and someone who remembers last week
- Cards, games, puzzles, crosswords, hobbies picked back up
- Reading together — a book, the local paper, the post
- A meal prepared and eaten together, not left on a tray
- Help with the phone or tablet, and video calls to family
- Music, radio, and the things they have always liked
The world outside the front door
Confidence goes quickly once someone stops going out. A first missed bus becomes a missed week, and a missed week becomes a habit. The most useful thing a companion often does is simply be there on the pavement so the trip happens at all.
- Walks, at whatever pace suits, with somewhere to sit planned in
- The shops, the market, the bank and the post office
- Collecting prescriptions
- The hairdresser, the barber, a café, the library
- Community groups, clubs and faith services
- Appointments — with a companion who waits and walks back in with them
Outings are in the companion's own insured car or by taxi, whichever suits. Mileage in a companion's car is charged at the HMRC rate of 45p a mile. Travel to your home is never charged.
Folded into the visit, never sold as an extra
Nobody wants to spend two hours watching someone else fold their washing. But if the beds need changing and it takes fifteen minutes, it gets done, and there is no separate line on your invoice for it.
Around the house
Light housekeeping, the washing up, laundry, changing beds, the bins, watering the plants.
Food
A meal planned, shopped for, cooked and eaten together. Something in the fridge for tomorrow.
The paperwork pile
Opening the post, reading letters aloud, simple admin, ringing the utility company together.
Not everyone needs a care agency
People come to us at very different points. Some have no care at all and simply want company. Some already have carers visiting twice a day for fifteen minutes and want two hours in the week that are not about tasks. A good number are arranged by an adult son or daughter who lives an hour or more away.
If you are not sure whether we are the right fit, the twenty-minute call will settle it, and it costs nothing. If we are not, we will tell you.
Companionship is the whole job, not a line on a rota
Most home care agencies offer companionship as one item inside a care package. It is the first thing squeezed when the round runs late. We do not run a care round, so there is nothing for your visit to be squeezed by.
Doing one thing means we can say exactly what it is, in writing, before you book.
Whitegreen Companions provides non-regulated independent living support. We do not provide personal care, nursing care, clinical care or any other activity regulated by the Care Quality Commission. Our companions can remind you to take medication but never administer it. If your needs change, we will help you find a registered care provider.
Personal care is defined in regulation 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. If it is what your family needs, tell us and we will help you find a provider registered to give it — at no charge and with no commission to us.
See whether we reach your street
Tell us the postcode and who the visits are for. We will tell you the same day whether we have a companion nearby, and what a typical week would cost.