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, in real time.

Request a free 90-day pilot See how it works

£180K

Average cost of one CQC downgrade to a care home

£75K+

Annual NHS CHC funding per eligible resident — unclaimed in most homes

11,300

UK care homes — most without real-time revenue intelligence

The problem

Care home groups are haemorrhaging revenue from four directions at once

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 are managing them separately, reactively, and expensively.

CQC downgrade risk

A single "Requires Improvement" rating drops enquiry volume by 30–50% within weeks. "Inadequate" suspends admissions entirely. Most groups only discover the gap when the inspector is already in the building.

Cost: £180,000+ per downgrade in lost admissions

Litigation exposure

Falls, pressure ulcers, and medication errors follow predictable patterns in the 2–4 weeks before they become serious incidents. Without real-time pattern detection, the evidence bundle is assembled after the claim arrives.

Cost: £50,000–£200,000 per successful PI claim

Unclaimed CHC funding

Approximately 20–40% of self-funding care home residents in England qualify for full NHS Continuing Healthcare funding. Most are never assessed. The application process is laborious and most homes don't pursue it systematically.

Cost: £60,000–£93,000 per eligible resident per year

Occupancy drift

One empty bed costs £1,000–£2,500 per month. A 60-bed home running at 84% occupancy is losing £100,000–£200,000 annually. Most groups discover this from their accounts, not from an early warning system.

Cost: £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, generating evidence, recovering funding, and telling your CEO exactly 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 position 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 — domain by domain, question by question. Predicts the rating, identifies the gaps, and generates the action plan. Run it monthly. 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 under 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. Tracks submission to decision. Finds the funding most homes never claim.

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. Generates the outreach scripts, Google Ads strategy, and tour conversion playbook for your team.

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.

⚠️

Litigation risk closed

60 seconds

A fall is reported. Sentinel generates the evidence bundle, RIDDOR assessment, and family notification — before a solicitor can build a case.

→

🛡️

CQC exposure documented

Automatic

The incident updates the Safe domain score. The evidence is locked, timestamped, and filed to the correct domain portfolio. Inspection-ready from the moment it happens.

💷

Revenue recovered

£75K–93K/yr

The pattern of escalating needs triggers a CHC eligibility check. Sentinel drafts the NHS application. The resident's funding converts from private-pay to NHS — 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 · £18,000/year · Best for sites and small groups

CQC spine — live domain scoring

Mock inspector — monthly simulations

Evidence builder — all 8 document types

Incident engine with voice input

CHC funding screener

Occupancy intelligence

Get started

Group — recommended

£900/home/mo

+ 15% of CHC funding recovered · Group discount 20%

Everything in Single Site

Quarterly ROI reporting to your board

Dedicated Sentinel success manager

White-label option for your group brand

Multi-site benchmarking dashboard

Priority support — 4-hour response

Request group proposal

90-day pilot

£0 base

Pure performance · 20% of all identified savings · Capped at £5K/home/mo

Full Sentinel access — no upfront cost

We find your revenue at risk in 48 hours

You pay only from savings we identify

Convert to Group contract at 90 days

Guaranteed: £500K identified or we walk

For groups of 10+ homes

Apply for pilot

What operators say

From the people who run serious care groups

"We had a Requires Improvement rating 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 funding engine identified three residents we had never assessed. Two qualified. That's £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 a mock inspection every month. When the inspector arrived last October, I already knew exactly what they would ask and had the evidence ready."

Registered Manager