A CHARITY that provides play therapy for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties has said a rise in referrals from schools is down to budget cuts.

Clear Sky Children’s Foundation, based in Blackbird Leys, provided support to more than 60 children a week last year in schools across the county – compared with 24 a week the previous year.

The charity’s director Sophia Giblin said it aimed to increase this to 100 children this academic year and blamed cuts to child services as a reason for the rise.

She said: “I think that because of recent budget cuts and services being reduced there’s a growing need for schools to find their own support for children with mental health problems.

“Schools are also becoming more accepting that there are no quick fixes.”

She said that the most common issues affecting children were separated parents or a difficult home life.

The charity’s therapists bring mobile play therapy kits to deliver one-to-one sessions to children who suffer with emotional or behavioural difficulties in school.

The schools identify children they think would benefit from the provision and refer them.

Last year the charity worked with 12 primary schools, including ones in East Oxford, Carterton, Bicester, Wantage and Kidlington.

The charity said it catered for 13 children in its first academic year 2011-12 and that it had reached 61 children a week across the county in 2014/15.

The charity, whose office base is in Sandy Lane West, Littlemore, but offers a mobile service, has ambitions to take on referrals from the NHS and social services to share their workload.

Ms Giblin said: “On the NHS there is a six-month waiting list for six sessions.

“It can be really difficult for the children and parents over that period of time.

“People are recognising that there needs to be something else.”

The charity takes its mobile therapy unit into schools and provides a safe space to relax children and work with them.

Ms Giblin said: “Play therapy is a form of intervention that offers children and young people a safe and accepting place in which to explore their emotional and behavioural difficulties through the use of play and creative arts.

“At their own pace the child is able to channel their energies, anxieties, fears and problems into play enabling them to express and ultimately resolve any underlying issues that are causing problems at home and school.”

The director said that funding could be a potential problem as the service is subsidised partly by the schools that use its service.

The charity gets its income from this subsidy, from local trusts and charitable donations.

For more information on the charity or to donate, visit clear-sky.org.uk.