Europe

The conference will bring together a wide range of organisations and individuals to discuss ideas on what the next National Children's Strategy should say about early childhood policies in Ireland.

The First Six Years. The focus of the conference will be policies that impact on all children in their first six years, including childminding, the Free Pre-School Year, parenting supports, workforce development, Siolta and Aistear, public health nursing, parental leave policies, and supports for children with special needs.

The Next Six Years. The next National Children's Strategy is to be published in 2012 and will run through until 2017 - six years from now. Even at a time of economic crisis, a 6-year time-frame offers scope for real progress. We will not achieve our long-term vision in the next six years, but we can make practical proposals on ways to move early childhood policies steadily in the right direction.

Confirmed contributors include:

* Professor Iram Siraj-Blatchford (Professor of Education, Institute of Education, London)
* Professor Noirin Hayes (Head of School of Social Sciences and Law, Dublin Institute of Technology)
* Senator Jillian Van Turnhout (Chair, Early Childhood Ireland)
* Mary Doyle (Assistant Secretary, Department of Children and Youth Affairs)
* Dr Mathias Urban (Reader in Education, University of East London)
* Maggie Simpson (Chief Executive, Scottish Childminding Association)

Workshops will take place on a range of key policy issues.

The agreed speakers are a senior civil servant, Ann Gross, who is Director of the Early Years and Special Needs Group at the Department for Education and Professor Helen Penn. The topic is governmental regulation of childcare businesses in Europe and England. Helen Penn has compiled an extensive report on this for the EU, while the DFE intends to put out a consultation on early education and childcare regulation issues this autumn.