My partner, Steve Lismore, who has died aged 71 in a climbing accident in Italy, was a civil servant and local politician with twin passions for giving children a good start in life and establishing equality of access to employment. Steve’s energy and commitment to action has had a lasting impact across north Derbyshire.

Born in Toronto, Canada, to Violet (nee Greaves), a secretary, and Brian Lismore, a toolmaker, Steve loved reading and excelled at Bayview Heights school, Ontario, skipping a grade and winning awards at science fairs.

His approach to life was formed in his teens. He combined adventure, practicality and ingenuity as he coaxed cheap motorbikes to ever improved performance. Steve’s bond with his sisters, Lydia and Carolyn, was forged through their childhood difficulties of having an alcoholic father and a mother dealing with anxiety. This experience meant that he offered an encouraging approach to almost everyone he met.

After graduating from York University in Toronto, he made a permanent move to the UK in 1978 to take a master’s degree in English literature at Aberystwyth University, where he met Jenie Thompson. They married in 1982 and lived in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a middle point between Jenie’s teaching job in Nottingham and Steve’s with Manpower Services in Sheffield; they separated in 2009 and divorced three years later.

Steve had several leading roles in Touchstone Community Development, a charity in Chesterfield dedicated to helping young people and children get the best start in life through training, education and nursery school provision, and remained a trustee to the end of his life. While chief executive, Steve provided leadership, secured funding and established projects, and took a personal interest in each trainee. Thousands of children and young people in Chesterfield have been helped by Touchstone.

Steve joined the Department for Work & Pensions in 2009 as senior policy adviser on disability employment. He led the team that published the Buckland review of autism employment to acclaim in 2024. Steve was committed to ensuring the review led to action and left a legacy of practical change.

He and I met in 2019 when we were both seconded to work for the Department of Health and Social Care in London, to support the social care directorate as it prepared for the impact if the UK left the EU without a withdrawal agreement.

Steve was a school governor and was involved with many other projects in the town he loved, including Citizens Advice, Chesterfield theatre and Transition Chesterfield, a community action group. He served as a Labour councillor, most recently as the cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Chesterfield council.

Steve was enthusiastic, inventive and active to the end of his life. He is survived by me, his children, James, Robin, Rosalinde and Simon, from his marriage to Jenie, four grandchildren, Abigail, Dausewell, Leonora and Isabella, and his sisters.