A truth and reconciliation forum is to be set up to support adults who suffered childhood abuse, children's minister Adam Ingram announced today.

A truth and reconciliation forum is to be set up to support adults who suffered childhood abuse, children's minister Adam Ingram announced today.

The forum was among a package of measures outlined this morning to help survivors and will initially focus on victims of abuse in children's homes.

The issue was brought into focus in recent years after revelations of ongoing abuse at the Kerelaw school in Ayrshire.

Mr Ingram told Parliament in a statement that ministers have been looking into the principles of a truth and reconciliation commission.

"We are considering good practice examples for taking forward a forum to give survivors the chance to speak about their experiences to help come to terms with the past," he said.

"This will provide an invaluable opportunity to establish the facts, learn from the suffering and use the experience to help us protect and provide for children in the future."

A national service framework to support survivors of historic in-care abuse will also be put in place to provide "advocacy, mediation and counselling services".

Mr Ingram said that funding has been made available over the next three years for this, with feedback to come from the Survivor Scotland Reference Group.

"I expect to be able to move ahead quickly with procurement for this national service."

The then First Minister Jack McConnell publicly apologised in Parliament in 2004 to the victims of children who were abused while in care.

Today's measures are based on recommendations from a report published last year by Tom Shaw, the former chief inspector of education in Northern Ireland, which focussed on long-standing abuse in homes across Scotland from 1950 to 1995.

Scotland has more than 220 establishments providing some form of residential care to children.