Sirona provides a range of services on behalf on the NHS, including mental health care, end of life care and community health services for children, families and young people as well as three urgent care centres.
In its report the CQC found the organisation – which serves about 940,000 patients – had breached legal regulations on the management of its services, leading it to downgrade Sirona from “good” to “requires improvement”.
It found that while staff understood how to speak up about issues, it said leaders lacked transparency and accountability, and that there was a culture that created fear of retribution for raising problems.
People using Sirona’s services also said the organisation did not engage with them about working out how to improve services, such as reducing long waiting times for autism and ADHD assessments.