HAVING grown up around disabled children, it was perhaps inevitable that Paul Barnard would end up working with them.

But his passion for his work led to so much more than a job.

Paul has just retired as chief executive of Diverse Abilities Plus, a Dorset charity offering lifetime support to children and adults with physical and learning disabilities.

He stepped down from the position last October and worked as director of development for the charity, formerly known as Dorset Scope, until his retirement last month.

“My father worked in the sector, in the residential setting,” he explained.

“So I grew up with children with disabilities from the age of two.”

Paul trained at college to teach PE and physics, but ended up teaching children with disabilities and was deputy head at two schools in Yorkshire, which specialised in educating children with profound and multiple disabilities, before moving into the charity sector.

He was assistant director for Living Prospects, a Christian voluntary organisation supporting people with learning disabilities, before becoming vice principal at the Victoria Education Centre, which specialises in education, care and therapy for young people with physical impairments and associated neurological and learning difficulties.

Paul joined Diverse Abilities Plus in September 1999 and soon set about expanding the services it provided.

“The organisation had set up very capable services for children and adults with physical and learning disabilities,” he said.

“They needed to grow and they have done. Adults were formerly provided for in residential care homes and we felt it would be a good thing to provide for them in their own homes.

“So we set up a new scheme and now provide for those same people in their own homes in the community and that has been a major change.

“Children’s services have grown and the way that short breaks are provided has changed and become more exciting, more in tune with what other boys and girls do. That’s been a very exciting development over the last two or three years.”

Paul is immensely proud of the changes in services the charity has made over the years, but admitted the work could be both “rewarding and sometimes very heartbreaking”.

“Sometimes people’s lives are shortened by their condition or their disability,” he explained.

“But sometimes they’re not. We’ve met the needs of some people going into their 80s which has been a great joy and a pleasure.

“It’s just sad that society takes so long to recognise that people have the same needs, desires and wishes as everybody else.”

Diverse Abilities Plus, which counts Langside School and Barnabas day centre among its many services, prides itself on being the only local charity to meet the needs of children and adults right the way through their life.

It is this involvement which has brought Paul the greatest pleasure during his time with the charity.

“I enjoy any engagement that I get with the people we support, whether they be children or adults. I really enjoy that kind of engagement. Working with people as individuals, having fun with them, helping them, just being with them is a delight.”

Paul will be doing some consulting work in the sector, while enjoying vegetable growing, green wood furniture making and putting his feet up during his retirement.

But his connections with the charity don’t end just yet – he is part of a team from the organisation taking part in the Gold Challenge, a national fundraising initiative inspired by the Olympics which sees teams and individuals take part in five sponsored Olympic sports.

But when the day finally comes to say goodbye, Paul admits it will be hard.

He said: “I’ve been around in this sector for more than 40 years and that’s going to be hard to say goodbye to.

“But one of the reasons why I feel okay about leaving at the moment is that we have a very capable senior team.

“There will be new ideas coming in and younger and energetic staff to take them forward.

“In that respect I’m very relaxed and comforted that the organisation could not be in better hands.”

• To find out about Diverse Abilities Plus, or the Gold Challenge, visit diverseabilitiesplus.org.