The Next Six Years: The First Six Years
The National Children's Strategy and children's early years
Start Strong hosted a national conference on children's early care and education on Tuesday 13th December in the Gresham Hotel, Dublin 1. The conference brought 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 full conference programme is available for download here.
Most of the conference presentations are available to download here:
- Josephine Bleach - Supporting Parents
- Suzanne Connolly - Joining Up Services
- Siobhan Fitzpatrick - Integrating Services
- Geraldine French - Quality in an Irish Context
- Aisling Gillen - Supporting Parents to Protect Children
- Alice Griffin - Inclusion in the Mainstream
- Noirin Hayes - Reflections
- Helen Johnston - Integrating Policies
- Mary Moloney and Eucharia McCarthy - Inclusive Policy and Practice
- Rose Murphy and Noirin Healy-Magwa - Evaluation of National Childminding Initiative
- Maggie Simpson - Recognition and Regulation
- Iram Siraj-Blatchford - Long-Term Impact of Children's Early Years
- Noelle Spring - Integration of Policy
- Mathias Urban - Quality and Professionalism
plus Join the debate at a new online early years policy forum, launched on 9th December: 0-6.ie - a blog hosted by Start Strong.
The First Six Years. The focus of the conference was 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.
