It looks like any other house in the quiet road, with children’s toys in the garden and families coming and going.

But this building, in Manor Avenue, Poole, is in fact rather special.

The property, owned by Dorset disability charity Diverse Abilities since 1995, provides vital respite care for children across the county with severe and complex physical and learning disabilities.

Some visit for a couple of hours a day, between school and teatime, while others will stay for four or five nights a week, to give their parents much-needed respite from the 24-hour care they require.

For some children, their visit to the home is the only time they will go out – apart from for school – or even have a bath. Few parents can afford the specialist hoists, or the £10,000 bath required to bathe their children safely.

The home – known as Smithers after a lady called Lily Smithers, who left some funds to the charity when she passed away, enabling them to buy the property – has long been in need of refurbishment.

Diverse Abilities last year launched the £250,000 Lilypad Appeal to transform the building. It now needs just £35,000 to complete the project.

The project included buying and adapting a new bungalow to rehouse the two adults, also supported by the charity, who occupied the building next door to the respite home.

Work is now under way to link the two properties, with both being completely refurbished, so that one can be used for day care, while the other is dedicated to those children staying overnight.

It means the accommodation will effectively be doubled, so that the home can accommodate more children than the four overnight and three day-time it currently supports.

Work on the building for overnight residents has nearly been completed, and the home now boasts widened corridors; four brightly-decorated, downstairs bedrooms; a brand new kitchen, with pull-out, lower surfaces so the children can get involved in baking activities; a 3D TV and brand new sofas in the spacious living room and an incredible sensory bathroom, complete with fish projections on the walls.

Even the garden has been transformed, with the help of generous donations and volunteers, to feature brightly coloured fencing, a heated cabin, tunnel with water misters and jumping water jets and heavily scented plants with different textures.

The focus of the project will now turn to the original building, and the charity is appealing for help from the public to raise the final £35,000 needed to complete the refurbishment by the end of October.

“This side of the building will be for daycare, but children that stay overnight will still use it,” explains capital appeals manager Vikki Slade.

“We will be knocking a wall down, the staircase will be coming out and we are going to get a new staircase put in, the bathroom is going to get ripped out.”

The existing communal room, with its mismatched sofas, peeling paint and ripped curtains, will be transformed into a bright, new playroom, while upstairs, the current tired bedrooms will also be given a new lease of life.

“There will be a chill-out room with bean bags and a sofa, so children can come up here and sleep or just be on their own, just be a teenager,” says Vikki.

“There will be a sensory room with £25,000 of equipment, padded floor and walls, lights, sounds, fibre optics and an aroma machine. We have a lot of children with visual impairments and this will be available whether they are day or overnight.”

The current staff bedrooms – all of which are currently crammed full of medical supplies and equipment – will become dedicated storage and office space, with all the bedrooms moving to the new, overnight building.

Outside, an accessible swing will be installed, along with stepping stones made of different surfaces, raised planters for sand and water play, and space for children to race around in twoseater go-karts.

“We are trying to let kids be kids,” says Vikki.

“These families don’t tend to get a package for respite until they’re big enough that they can’t be managed by adults – it tends to be once a family gets to crisis point. For some families, that’s age seven to eight, for some it’s 14 to 15.

“One of the children that comes here for three of four hours, the mum goes and sits in her car and goes to sleep. Some children don’t have a bath unless they come here, one of the children only goes out when she comes here or goes to school.

“This is it. We’ve got to make it as amazing as we can so she gets all those experiences.

“When you meet the children, you see why we are doing it.”

Diverse Abilities needs £35,000 to complete the following:

  • Play equipment for the garden including a new soft ground surface as a safe play area for children with mobility difficulties.
  • Entrance building to link the two wings of the respite home, providing a welcome for all the children who visit.
  • An accessible drop off area for parents bringing their children for respite.
  • Remodelling the bathroom in the day wing.
  • Hoists in the day wing.
  • Ramp for the new play cabin.
  • The front garden and landscaping.
  • If you can help, or want more more information regarding Diverse Abilities and the Lilypad Appeal, visit lilypadappeal.org.uk or call 01202 718266.