The Care Quality Commission
  • Services in your home
  • Homecare service

Sambhana Care Ltd

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

Unit 12, Hopewell Business Centre, Chatham, ME5 7DX 07851 035934

Provided and run by:
Sambhana Care Ltd

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 18 November 2025 to 5 December 2025. Sambhana Care provides care and support to adults living in their own home. Sambhana Care Ltd had been rated Inadequate at the previous inspection and we undertook this assessment to follow up on enforcement action issued after our last assessment. At our last inspection we identified 8 breaches of regulation relating to the culture of the service, risk management, staffing, recruitment, safeguarding, governance, consent, and maintaining people’s dignity. We found there was a closed culture within the service, the provider was not open and transparent about incidents that had happened. At this inspection, significant improvements had been made, and the service was no longer in breach of any regulation. The provider had stepped back from day-to-day operations and had employed a new registered manager and new office staff, including supervisors and care co-ordinators. The service was also being over seen by a new operations manager who also is the Nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.

At this inspection, we found that the service had made meaningful progress across most areas, particularly in culture, communication, training, care planning and staff supervision. People and families consistently told us they experienced kinder, more reliable care, and staff described clearer expectations under the new registered manager and nominated individual.

Despite this progress, improvements had not been yet fully embedded due to time. Governance systems—introduced only recently—had not consistently identified issues, and in some cases, inspectors identified concerns that internal audits had missed. This meant leaders could not yet fully assure themselves, at time of inspection, that care was safe and consistently managed.
Medicines management and risk assessment remained an area of concern. Although the registered manager had taken steps to improve practice, there were still gaps in MAR charts, incomplete audits and insufficiently detailed risk assessments. Some risks, such as the use of flammable creams, had not been appropriately assessed until raised during inspection. Once raised, these were remedied immediately.

Overall, the service is moving in the right direction, and many improvements have had a positive impact on people’s experiences. The registered manager and nominated individual had created a more open, supportive and responsive culture. Governance, medicines and risk management require further time to fully demonstrate appropriate oversight and consistency.
Feedback given to the registered manager and the nominated individual was accepted and acted upon immediately.

This service has been in Special Measures since 16 April 2025. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a time frame within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.
The registered manager demonstrated improvements that have been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 15 January 2025 to 4 February 2025. Sambhana Care provides care and support to adults living in their own home. We undertook this assessment to follow up on enforcement action issued after our last assessment. We found the quality of the service had deteriorated and there were now 8 breaches of regulation relating to the culture of the service, risk management, staffing, recruitment, safeguarding, governance, consent, and maintaining people’s dignity. We found there was a closed culture within the service, the provider was not open and transparent about incidents that had happened. These incidents had not been reported when they happened, and the provider did not provide accurate information when asked about them. Potential risks to people’s health and welfare had not always been assessed and there was no guidance for staff to follow to mitigate the risks. Staff had not been safely recruited and had not received training and supervision to make sure they had the skills to support people safely. Medicines were not always managed safely. Staff had not always felt confident to speak up when they had concerns. The provider had not followed the Mental Capacity Act 2005 when decisions were made about people’s care and support. The service was not providing person centred care and acting in people’s best interests. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded. This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we user our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

During an assessment under our new approach

Date of assessment: 6 August to 30 August 2024. We completed this assessment to review the rating for well led following an initial assessment in January 2024, which had not included all the quality statements in the well led key question.

During the assessment we found 5 breaches of regulation in relation to risk management safeguarding, staffing and governance. The previous registered manager had left the service in May 2024, there was a new manager in post but at this assessment the quality of the service had deteriorated. There were now significant shortfalls in the oversight of the service. The provider and manager told us they had identified shortfalls, but they had not acted to make any improvements. There were no action plans in place to address the concerns. Accidents and incidents had not been fully investigated, when action had been taken, there was no evidence how the decision was made.

Staff had not been recruited safely and they had not received the training and supervision to complete their role. There were no effective systems in place to recognise and report concerns of abuse and discrimination to the local authority for investigation. Potential risks to people’s health and welfare had not been assessed and there was no guidance for staff to mitigate the risk.

In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/or appeals have been concluded.

During an assessment under our new approach

Sambhana Care Ltd is a domiciliary care service, they support people in their own homes. The service support people with personal care and everyday tasks to remain as independent as possible. We completed this assessment between 12 January 2024 and 19 January 2024, we visited the office on the 12 January 2024. We spoke with people, relatives and staff remotely to gather their views about the service. At our last inspection, we found some shortfalls in care and management oversight of the service, at this assessment we checked to make sure improvements had been made. We assessed 7 quality statements including Safeguarding, Involving people to manage risk, Safe and effective staffing, Medicines, Independence choice and control, Equality in Experiences and Outcomes and Governance and assurance. We found improvements had been made in these quality statements since our last inspection and these were assessed as good. The overall rating of the service is now Good.

30 June 2022

During a routine inspection

About the service

Sambhana Care is a domiciliary care agency based in Chatham, Kent. The service provides personal care to people living in their own houses or flats. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. The service was supporting five people at time of the inspection with personal care.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Risk assessments were not always in place where they needed to be. Current staff knew people well and were able to support their needs. However, new staff potentially would not have the information they needed to support people. This put people at potential risk of harm and at risk of receiving inconsistent care.

Records of medicines people required support with were inconsistent. Most people had full assessments and information for staff on what medicines was to be given and the level of support required. One did not have any information but was having support with their medicines. Competencies in providing safe support with medicines had not been assessed for all staff. However, people and their loved ones we spoke with, told us they had no concerns with medicine administration.

Audits and checks of the service had not taken place regularly in the months prior to the inspection. Care plans were not reviewed to ensure they were up to date and contained appropriate documentation of potential risks. We did not see evidence of trends analysis to further aid learning and drive improvements.

People's care needs had been assessed when they started with the service and people and their relatives told us they were able to 'tweak and change' their care plans as needed.

Where incidents and accidents had occurred, these had been reported. Staff were able to demonstrate knowledge of the different types of abuse a person may be at risk of and how they would report these.

Staff had been recruited safely. Feedback from people about the care they received from regular staff who stayed the duration required, was mainly positive. People told us they felt safe and staff were caring, respectful and polite.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 23 October 2020 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance at this inspection.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.