Trusted Companions, from two friends who have known each other for years.
A&L Trusted Companions started with a kitchen-table conversation. Two retired nurses, two driving licences, two cars, and a long list of friends and neighbours who would, they knew, benefit from a few hours of proper company a week.
Both retired from nursing, neither ready to stop looking after people. Between them they had spent decades caring for others: patients on wards, families in the community, people at the hardest and quietest moments of their lives. Retiring from nursing did not end that instinct.
There are people across Staffordshire, they knew, who would benefit from a few hours of proper company a week. Someone to sit with, drive to appointments, listen to.
So they set this up. They cover different parts of Staffordshire so there is no confusion about who comes when. But the standards, the warmth, and the promise of "when we are with you, you have our full attention" are the same from both of them.
Two ex-Registered Nurses. One promise.
Meet Alison
Alison Joy spent her career as a Registered Nurse. She trained in general nursing and went on to specialise in haematology and oncology, alongside district nursing and palliative care. Few people have seen as much, in as many settings, as Alison has.
What she brings to a companion visit is not a clinical checklist. It is the calm of someone who has sat with thousands of people through every kind of day: the good ones, the difficult ones, and the ones where someone just needed company and a proper cup of tea.
Alison lives in Newcastle-under-Lyme and covers the surrounding towns and villages. She holds a current Basic DBS certificate, is fully insured for client work, and drives her own car.
I have cared for people my whole working life. Doing it now, for neighbours in the towns I know, feels like the right way to keep going. Alison Joy
Meet Louise
Louise Colley spent her career in nursing and retired as a Ward Sister. Her specialty was orthopaedics: hip and knee replacements, spinal surgery, and the rehabilitation that follows. If you, or someone you love, is coming home from hospital after an operation, Louise has cared for hundreds of patients in exactly that situation, and knows what genuinely helps in the first weeks back.
She is calm, practical, and exactly the kind of person you would want sitting in the chair next to you on a quiet afternoon. Outside of work, she has been a long-standing friend of Alison's, which is how A&L Trusted Companions came to be.
Louise lives in Endon and covers the surrounding villages around the Staffordshire Moorlands. She holds a current Basic DBS certificate and is fully insured for client work.
After a hip replacement, the surgeons get you walking again. The hard part is the weeks after, at home. That is where good company makes the difference. Louise Colley
A trusted network, the same standard
Alison and Louise remain the heart of A&L. As more families ask for us, they draw on a trusted network of self-employed companions who share their ethos, people they already know from a nursing or healthcare background, personally vetted by Alison and Louise, and Basic DBS-checked and fully insured before they visit anyone. It means we can say yes to more families without ever watering down the care.
If you share Alison and Louise's ethos and their way of caring, and you would like to be part of that network, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch.
Five things you can count on from us.
- You will see the same face every visit. No agency rota, no strangers.
- We will arrive on time, every time. If we can't, we will tell you why.
- We will not rush off. The time we have booked is yours.
- What we cannot do, we will say so honestly, and help you find the right person.
- Everything is in writing: price, hours, and what is included.
Like the sound of us?
The first chat is free and there is no obligation. Tell us a little about who the visits would be for, and we will come back to you within one working day.
Request a free first chat