Oxfordshire Playbus provides services to children and families across Oxfordshire. Our remit is ‘to provide, or assist in the provision of recreational and leisure-time activities for children, young people and adults’, in other words we can play with anyone! However, because we are a small charity with a whole county to play with we target our services to those who need them most.

Play is about the quality of life, it is how young children learn and how we all make and strengthen friendships and other relationships. For some of the children we work with it’s just a chance to have fun, to let off steam, to spend time with friends, for others it is the one time they feel safe and where they have the chance to be with people who care for and respect them.

We believe in equality of opportunity and we work hard to give the best service we can. By offering our best we can help to build self-confidence and self-esteem. Our aim is to improve the quality of life of some of the most vulnerable. Oxfordshire is an affluent county in many ways but, for those who do not share in that affluence, it can be a grim place to live.

Children’s right to play, as set out under Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is becoming increasingly embedded in policy across the UK. In Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government has adopted a national play policy based on agreed principles for children’s play. In England, the government has published a ten year play strategy outlining their long-term vision and actions to deliver more and better play provision and play space for the country’s children.

Play Scotland has launched a Play Commission to provide a framework for a national play strategy for the Scottish Executive to consider. In Northern Ireland, the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister have agreed a regional Play and Leisure Policy statement; work has commenced on the development of two implementation plans for children aged 0 to 11 years and 11 to 18 years.