A care-in-your-own-home service that helps vulnerable people avoid going into residential care homes is creating jobs in Greenwich and Dartford.

Led by registered nurse Mary Ada Alajemba, Blossom Home Care differentiates itself from much of the care sector by making its home visits at least 50 minutes long.

That contrasts with the industry-standard 15-minute whistlestop home visits that have caused widespread dismay and made it hard to recruit carers who can’t even be sure they’ll be reimbursed for their fuel costs.

“Exchanging pleasantries with clients takes me about 20 minutes before I even do my job so I don’t see how I could possibly deliver care holistically in 15 minutes,” says Mary Ada.

“I and the people I employ are here first and foremost because we have compassion and want to care for people.

“We support people to live in their own home, surrounded by the people and things they love, and being with their cats or dogs.

“They couldn’t do what they want to in a care home. Just like we would, they want the best quality care and to spend what may be the last days of their life in their own home.”

Apart from dealing with clients’ basic needs, Blossom’s carers might sit and have a chat with them or play a game of Scrabble – pleasures that would be impossible without the longer visits.

And Mary Ada’s continuing role as a hospital nurse gives her a unique insight into the social-care crisis.

“I can see it from both ends,” she says. “I work on the wards where patients are unable to be discharged because there isn’t anyone to look after them at home, and I’m now a social-care provider hoping to plug at least some of that gap.

“It puts pressure on us as staff on the hospital wards as the patients have been prepared to go home, have psyched themselves up for it, then come back to us after a week feeling disorientated.

“Their mood has changed and we have to try to get them back to where they were before. They’d been excited to go home then suddenly become very withdrawn and confused.”

Mary Ada, who has seven years’ experience as a registered nurse, is based in Gunnery Terrace, Greenwich, and intends to open further offices as her business expands.

She’s already employed 20 experienced carers and expects to create many more jobs in the next few years.