Time to be Heard Pilot Forum

Background

In February 2008, Scottish Ministers announced that the Government were committed to scoping whether a Truth and Reconciliation approach to survivors of alleged in care abuse would be appropriate. We prepared a discussion paper, under the new title of ‘Acknowledgement and Accountability’, and with the help of members of the SurvivorScotland National Reference Group.

We circulated this discussion paper to many people. We also held consultation exercises to get feedback from survivors about the possibility of holding a forum and what that should entail. We made extensive efforts to ensure that all the stakeholders had the opportunity to respond. We wanted particularly to try and reach survivors whose voices might not otherwise be heard.

In addition to the consultation, we have taken into account the experiences of Inquiries and Forums in Australia, Canada, Wales and Ireland and previous Inquiries in Scotland (Kerelaw School (2009), Child Abuse at Care Homes in Fife (2002) and Abuse and Protection of Children in Care in Edinburgh (1999)).

You can access all the consultation documents on the publication pages of the Scottish Government website. If you would like a hard copy of the document, or in a special format, or have any other enquiry then please use the feedback form on the website.

Pilot Forum

Scottish Ministers have agreed that a pilot forum will go ahead in spring 2010. Whilst the final shape of the Forum is still under discussion, it is hoped that it will help survivors in the following ways:

• The primary aim of the Pilot Forum will be to provide an opportunity for survivors to talk openly about their experiences and be listened to without question.
• The Pilot Forum will seek to safeguard the rights of survivors and also people and institutions against whom allegations are made. The Pilot Forum will NOT be an alternative to a criminal prosecution or a civil action.
• We will create a ‘historic record’ from the information presented to the Pilot Forum. This record will be confidential and will not name individuals. The aim of the record is to validate what survivors experienced and to acknowledge Scotland’s recognition of their experiences. The record should help us learn from past failures and improve practice in the future.
• The Pilot Forum will provide access and signposts to other forms of support for survivors. The Pilot Forum is only one means of assisting survivors and it needs to be supported by access to other forms of support and assistance. We appreciate that the Pilot Forum may re-awaken distressing memories for survivors. We will therefore seek to ensure that any survivor involved in the Pilot Forum has access to counselling and details of relevant support services will be made available to survivors both during and after the Pilot Forum.

The Pilot Forum will involve a limited number of survivors only so that we can test out whether this approach will work.

For all the latest news on the Pilot Forum please see the further information page as well as the news section of the website.

SurvivorScotland Team