Lifeways Should Lose Their Contract, Not Connor His Home – Save Ash House, Coventry
Imagine living somewhere for eight years. It is your home, your safe place, the world you know. Then imagine becoming seriously unwell, needing hospital treatment, and discovering that while you are fighting to recover, the organisation responsible for your care has decided you can no longer return.

Now imagine having profound learning disabilities, being unable to fully understand what is happening or fight for the home you are about to lose. This is the reality facing 26-year-old Connor.

Connor has Phelan-McDermid syndrome, autism and severe learning disabilities. For approximately eight years, Ash House in Coventry has been his home. It is where he has built relationships, developed routines and found familiarity in a world that can often be overwhelming.

What makes this situation even more heartbreaking is that Connor has lived in this area of Coventry his entire life. This isn't simply a residential placement in a location chosen for convenience. This is his community, the place where he grew up, where people know him, recognise him and look out for him.

Connor is a familiar face in the local area. People have watched him grow up, they know his personality, and there is a genuine sense of care and belonging around him. These connections have taken a lifetime to build, and they cannot simply be replaced by finding an available bed somewhere else. For someone with Connor's disabilities, familiarity isn't a luxury. It is an essential part of feeling safe, secure and connected to the world around him.

When Connor became seriously unwell and required specialist hospital treatment, funding was agreed to protect his residential placement until he was ready to return. Lifeways, the organisation operating Ash House, initially agreed to this arrangement. Yet while Connor remains in hospital receiving treatment, Lifeways has decided to withdraw his placement with just 28 days' notice.

Twenty-eight days to take away eight years of somebody's home and a lifetime of belonging to a community.

Connor hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't chosen to become unwell. He needs medical treatment, understanding and stability, yet the very organisation entrusted with his care has decided it can no longer support him.

Why should Connor be the one to leave? Why should a profoundly disabled adult lose his home and potentially be removed from the community he has known his entire life because the organisation responsible for providing his care has decided it can no longer meet his needs? If the problem lies with the provider's ability or willingness to deliver appropriate support, surely we should be questioning the future of that provider rather than automatically accepting that the resident must go.

Approximately two and a half years ago, Connor's mother exposed abuse and neglect within Ash House after installing hidden cameras to protect him. His story became part of an ITV News investigation, and his mother went on to campaign for greater protection for vulnerable adults. Having already fought to expose what was happening behind closed doors, she now finds herself fighting to protect the very home her son has known for years.

Connor's family has lost confidence in Lifeways as an organisation. However, this is not a reflection on all the staff at Ash House. Some have cared for Connor for many years, shown him genuine kindness and become important people in his life. The concerns are about the organisation responsible for managing the service and the decisions being made about the lives of vulnerable people.

This petition calls on the responsible local authority and NHS commissioners to urgently commission an independent investigation into Lifeways' management of Ash House, the circumstances surrounding Connor's placement termination and whether the current contractual arrangements adequately protect residents.

We are asking commissioners to pursue the removal of Lifeways as the care provider where the findings justify termination of its contract, and to explore appointing a suitable alternative organisation to take over Ash House, with the necessary legal, contractual and safeguarding protections in place.

The priority must be protecting the residents, their homes, their relationships and their stability. Any change of provider should be carefully planned, with the wishes, rights and wellbeing of every resident at its heart. Vulnerable people should not be expected to bear the consequences of decisions made by the organisations entrusted with their care.

This petition is about more than one organisation or one residential home. It raises a much bigger question about how society values and protects people with learning disabilities. A care provider may see a placement, a contract or a service agreement, but to the person living there, it is their home, their security and their life. When somebody cannot speak up for themselves, surely the responsibility to protect those things should be even greater.

Connor is not asking for special treatment. He deserves the same security, dignity and right to a home as anybody else. He deserves to recover knowing that his future matters, that his home matters and that he is more than a name on a care contract.

Connor has spent his entire life surrounded by a community that knows him and cares about him. He should not have to lose that because the organisation responsible for his care has decided it can no longer support him.

Please sign and share this petition to demand accountability, meaningful action from commissioners and a future where vulnerable adults are protected rather than displaced.

The people living in care homes are not disposable, their homes are not disposable, and Connor is not disposable.

Change the provider. Protect the residents. Keep Connor's home.