Sirona is a not-for-profit social enterprise serving approximately 940,000 people across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Catherine Campbell, CQC's deputy director for the South West, said: ‘When we inspected Sirona, we found staff trying their best, but we found an organisation facing significant leadership challenges that were affecting its ability to deliver consistently good care to the communities it serves.'

A Sirona spokesperson said: ‘While it is disappointing that our well-led rating has gone down a band, this is not a reflection on the care Sirona delivers or on our dedicated and hardworking staff, but on our internal arrangements and processes as they were in February 2025.

‘Since then, we have made substantial progress in our leadership, governance and culture. We have addressed and continue to address issues with recruitment. We are confident that, under the leadership of our new chief executive and senior team, Sirona will continue to improve significantly, becoming a stronger organisation that can better support our frontline staff as they provide vital community care to patients and their families.'

Sirona has appointed a permanent chief executive and chair for the first time in 18 months and said it had filled all non-executive director roles.

It said it was making good progress on recruiting the last remaining vacancies in its senior team and improvements to processes and systems were being rolled out with an independent culture review due to report in January.

The company said 95% of patients using adult services said they had a good or very good experience in September and October.