About us

We provide you and your community with high quality specialist health and social care services.

Who we are

Our aim is to be there when you or your family or carer need us most and help you stay as independent as possible.

We look after adults and children at home and at school and provide residential and nursing care through our residential homes and extra care facilities. Our hundreds of staff work across South Gloucestershire, parts of Bristol and Bath and North East Somerset.

We are very proud that our most recent Care Quality Commission rating for the care our staff provide is Outstanding. Read the latest report here

A not-for-profit social enterprise, we are funded by the NHS and local authorities. NHS care is free at the point of delivery. We are committed to serving our communities as a Community Interest Company, our activities provide benefit to all members of the population of the areas we cover.

Taking it Personally

Discover the values every member of our team hold dear and the foundations on which we provide care

our values

We are innovative in the way we deliver services to people and adopt the latest techniques in health and social care. This approach helps us to promote safe and high-quality services to meet the needs of people, their families and their carers.

Training, education and support for our staff is a crucial part of care innovation. We empower our staff to create their own ideas to make our services more responsive for the people who use them.

We work with individuals and partner organisations to make sure the care you receive is as joined-up as it can be and that everyone involved in your care knows what you need and when.

We also provide some services with partners, for example The Community Children’s Health Partnership in Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

We are involved in Healthier Together, the STP (Sustainability and Transformation Plan) in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Our Board is responsible for the day to day running and management of Sirona’s business. It is made up of our Senior Leadership Team of Executive Directors who are full time senior staff and an independent lay Chairman and Non-Executive Directors.

The Executive Directors bring to the Board clinical, operational and commercial experience and expertise while the Chair and Non-Executive Directors bring their skills and experience from a wide variety of roles in the community and in social and commercial enterprises.

The Board is accountable to the Members* of Sirona for its management of the organisation. The role of a Members is similar to that of a shareholder in a public limited company, except a Sirona Member does not hold any financial interest. Members perform this corporate governance role by receiving regular reports about our performance and participating in Members’ meetings and in general meetings.

We judge our success by listening to the views of those using our services. The real examples of the care and support given by our staff, with skill, compassion and respect, we know are a credit to us.

Our ongoing commitment to our service users is that we will provide services as we would wish to receive them ourselves, or for those we love.

Our ongoing commitment to our staff is that we will continue to value the huge contribution they make to Sirona’s success and we will always treat them fairly and with respect.

By us all working together, we will continue to strive for excellence in all we do.

*We will be featuring a who’s who on our Members shortly. You can meet our Senior Leadership Team and Board below.

Senior Leadership

Janet Rowse

Chief Executive

Janet leads the organisation and ensures she spends time each week talking to staff or going to visit services to help her know how it feels to be working in Sirona or receiving care from Sirona. She has been our Chief Executive since Sirona was founded.

She also spends time working with other Chief Executives and Directors from other provider and commissioning organisations across the region.

Janet lives in Mendip and has family across the South West.

Clive Bassett

Interim Finance Director

Jenny Theed

Director of Operations & Nursing

Jenny, who has also been with Sirona since it was founded in 2011, describes her role as a privilege as she is able to get involved or oversee the delivery of a range of services and innovative developments.

Jenny brings a wealth of clinical experience having trained as a Nurse and as a Health Visitor.

Julie Sharma

Business Development Director

Julie has been working in health and social care for 40 years and is at the heart of supporting change in current services and bidding for new business.

Her team works behind-the-scenes yet closely with front line services and she can be working with colleagues exploring new models of service and visioning for the future one day and drafting a submission to demonstrate how Sirona can add value to local services in other areas.

She is passionate about Sirona's commitment to ensuring that we look after each other staff and service users in a way that we would want to be looked after ourselves or for our families.

Linda Frankland

Deputy Director of Finance

Linda is a qualified accountant and is passionate about ensuring that finance is seen as a key enabler for the organisation to achieve high quality and effective service provision.

As well as managing the Finance and Payroll teams, she has taken on responsibility for Quality, Governance and Performance.

Dr Roy Sharma

Medical Director

Roy worked for 34 years as a GP at Lydney until he retired in 2016. Since then, he has worked as a GP locum in several practices in Gloucestershire and Wales, and for
Sirona at North Bristol NHS Trust in the Elgar Unit and later in the Skylark Rehabilitation Unit in Yate.

Roy has also worked in management for the Area Health Authority, District Health Authority, Primary Care Trust and Clinical Commissioning Group in Gloucestershire and
spent a few years in the mid 1990s for the Cabinet Office in Whitehall on the GP efficiency scrutiny “Patients Not Paper”.

Responsible Officer (Medical Professions) – Dr Roy Sharma, Medical Director.

Sarah Margetts

HR Director

Sarah was appointed HR Director in the summer of 2018. She joined Sirona as Head of HR in 2015 having previously led HR teams in a number of different organisations including the charity and not-for-profit sector, as well as education and social care.

She has worked in HR for more than 20 years, and initially started her career as an apprentice working in a Local Authority, later becoming a full chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Non-Executive Directors

Simon Knighton

Chairman

Simon has chaired Sirona since its foundation in 2011 and brings a wealth of experience from industry and from working in a number of socially based businesses, including as Chief Executive of the NHS Expert Patients Programme.

Simon is passionate about the provision of high quality health and social care services for all in our communities and takes a particular interest in promoting healthy lifestyles and wellbeing. He is a keen climber and mountaineer himself, having reached 7800m on the challenging Everest north ridge, and has twice sailed the Atlantic.

Simon is married with four children and lives in Wiltshire.

David Purdon

Chair of Audit Committee

David joined Sirona in 2011 and is the Chair of the Audit Committee.

During his career he has worked in many aspects of finance and became the Finance Director, and then Managing Director, of Wilts Wholesale Electrical Co Limited in 1988 the largest independent electrical wholesaler in the UK. David stepped down as Managing Director in December 2010, but remains on the Wilts Board as a non- executive director.

David has lived in Bathampton since 1988 and is married with three children. He is Chair of the Bath Foodbank charity, which provides emergency food for Bath families in crisis.

Paul May

Non-Executive Director

Paul joined Sirona in August 2015 as he believed the opportunity for front line staff to work together for the benefit of our community was so crucial to more joined up care that he wanted to be part of making that happen. Paul is also a councillor with Bath & North East Somerset Council serving Publow and Whitchurch ward.

He has around 50 years of public sector experience including non-executive directorships with health organisations and believes the staff are our most valuable asset.

Amanda Cheesley

Non-Executive Director

Amanda Cheesley joined Sirona at the end of 2017. She is a qualified nurse who is the UK professional lead for End of Life Care and Long Term Conditions at the Royal College of Nursing.

She has worked at Guy's Hospital in London, as a member of the Mountain Rescue Team in the Lake District and as the Matron for the Eskdale Centre.

Amanda has also worked in Bristol and South Gloucestershire in various roles including being a district nurse and Service Manager of Intermediate Care in South Gloucestershire.

In 2015 she took part in the Clipper Round the World Sailing Race raising money for Breast Cancer describing it as an experience that fluctuated between complete terror, exhaustion and exhilaration!

She was drawn to the role at Sirona as she shares the values and ambitions of involving people including staff in developing and improving care but also because she wanted to give something back to her community.