UK care home groups with 20+ homes have on average £183,000–£2.3M in unprotected or unclaimed revenue. Sentinel finds it in 48 hours.
CareOpal Sentinel · 2026

The AI operating system that protects care home revenue

CQC downgrades, litigation exposure, and unclaimed NHS funding are destroying care home group margins. Sentinel stops all three — simultaneously, before the damage is done.

£180K
Average cost of one CQC downgrade in lost admissions
£75K+
Annual NHS CHC funding per eligible self-funding resident — mostly unclaimed
11,300
Registered UK care homes — most without real-time revenue intelligence
The problem

Care home groups are losing revenue from four directions simultaneously

CQC anxiety is the visible symptom. The real problem is that compliance failures, litigation exposure, unclaimed NHS funding, and occupancy drift are all connected — and most operators manage them separately, reactively, and expensively.

01
CQC downgrade risk
A single "Requires Improvement" rating drops enquiry volume by 30–50% within weeks. "Inadequate" suspends new admissions entirely. Most groups discover the compliance gap when the inspector is already in the building.
→ £180,000+ per downgrade in lost admissions
02
Falls, pressure ulcers, and medication errors follow predictable patterns in the 2–4 weeks before they become serious incidents. Without pattern detection, evidence is assembled after the claim arrives — not before.
Litigation exposure
→ £50,000–£200,000 per successful PI claim
03
Unclaimed CHC funding
Up to 40% of self-funding care home residents in England qualify for full NHS Continuing Healthcare. Most are never assessed. The application process is laborious and most homes don't pursue it systematically.
→ £60,000–£93,000 per eligible resident per year
04
Occupancy drift
One empty bed costs £1,000–£2,500 per month. A 60-bed home at 84% occupancy is losing up to £200,000 annually. Most groups discover this from their accounts — not from an early warning system.
→ £78,000/year per consistently empty bed
The Sentinel platform

One AI. Six modules. Every revenue threat — covered.

Sentinel is not compliance software. It is the AI operating system that sits across every revenue risk in your care group — detecting threats before they materialise, building evidence automatically, recovering funding, and giving your CEO a single view of where the money is going.

🛡️
CQC Spine
Live domain scoring across all five CQC domains. Every incident, staffing gap, and documentation failure updates your compliance score in real time. Your group's CQC health on one screen — before the inspector arrives.
Safe · Effective · Caring · Responsive · Well-led
🔍
Mock Inspector
Sentinel interrogates your home the way a real CQC inspector would. Predicts the rating, identifies the gaps, generates the action plan. Run it monthly and the real inspection becomes a formality.
Unannounced · Follow-up · Concern-triggered
📋
Evidence Builder
Falls risk assessments, governance action plans, RIDDOR notifications, care plans, complaints responses — generated in under 60 seconds. CQC-compliant, legally sound, ready to hand to an inspector on the day.
8 document types · Auto-populated · Timestamped
Incident Engine
Staff report incidents by voice or text. Sentinel classifies severity, determines RIDDOR and CQC notification requirements, generates the full evidence bundle, and updates the resident litigation risk score — in 90 seconds.
Voice input · RIDDOR · Litigation shield
💷
CHC Funding Engine
Screens every self-funding resident against the NHS Decision Support Tool. Scores all 12 domains, argues the primary health need, and drafts the full ICB application. Finds the funding most homes leave unclaimed indefinitely.
DST scoring · Application drafting · Family letters
📈
Occupancy Intelligence
Monitors competitor homes, local authority discharge signals, and your own enquiry pipeline. Alerts you 14 days before occupancy falls and generates the outreach scripts, ad strategy, and tour conversion playbook.
Competitor monitoring · Waitlist activation · LA liaison
The commercial loop

One incident. Three outcomes. No competitor has built this.

Every incident in your home triggers a chain of connected actions that transforms a liability into a revenue recovery event. This is the loop that justifies the contract — and keeps operators from ever leaving.

⚠️
Litigation risk closed
60 seconds
Incident reported. Evidence bundle, RIDDOR assessment, and family notification generated before a solicitor can build a case.
🛡️
CQC exposure documented
Automatic
Incident updates the Safe domain score. Evidence locked, timestamped, and filed to the correct CQC domain portfolio. Inspection-ready instantly.
💷
Revenue recovered
£75K–93K/yr
Escalating needs trigger a CHC eligibility check. Sentinel drafts the NHS application. Private-pay converts to NHS-funded — protecting occupancy and removing family fee pressure.
Pricing

Priced on outcomes, not features

£499/month is the price of a forgotten direct debit. We price Sentinel on the value it protects and recovers — because that is the only number that matters to a group CEO.

Single site
£1,500/home/mo
Full Sentinel OS · Billed monthly or annually
CQC spine — live domain scoring
Mock inspector — monthly simulations
Evidence builder — all document types
Incident engine with voice input
CHC funding screener and application
Occupancy intelligence dashboard
Get started
90-day pilot
£0 base
Performance only · 20% of savings identified · Capped at £5K/home/mo
Full Sentinel access — zero upfront cost
Revenue at risk identified within 48 hours
Pay only from savings we find for you
Guaranteed: £500K identified or we walk
Converts to Group contract at day 90
For groups of 10+ homes only
Apply for pilot
What operators say

From people who run serious care groups

★★★★★
"We had a Requires Improvement for Safe. Sentinel identified the exact documentation pattern that caused it within 48 hours. We had an action plan before the ink was dry on the report."
Chief Operating Officer
22-home group, South East England
★★★★★
"The CHC engine identified three residents we had never assessed. Two qualified. That is £150,000 a year in NHS funding we were leaving on the table. The subscription paid for itself in the first month."
Finance Director
14-home group, Midlands
★★★★★
"I used to dread unannounced inspections. Now I run the mock inspector every month. When the real inspector arrived last October, I already knew every question they would ask."
Registered Manager
68-bed home, Bromley

Stop managing risk. Start recovering revenue.

Request a free 90-day pilot. We will identify at least £500,000 in protected or recoverable revenue across your group — in writing, with your own numbers — or we walk away.

Request your free pilot →
Or email us directly: support@careopal.com