THE latest report from the National Confidential Forum (NCF) on childhood abuse is horrifying. Some might also find it rather puzzling.

It is an update from the forum, which was set up at a cost of more than £4 million to allow victims of abuse in care to tell their stories, and details shocking first-hand testimony of the abuse and outright torture victims claim they suffered.

It is a chastening read showing how children from abusive or neglectful homes, and those affected by parental death, imprisonment or addiction, were taken into a care system where too often they were far from safe.

But it’s also frustrating. Dr Rachel Happer, who heads the NCF, told me few of the 78 victims who have so far given evidence to the forum have seen any kind of justice. Some said their abusers had since been charged, but most had not been. The abuse took place in silence. Victims were told they would not be believed, that they were worthless and that nobody cared.

There was also silence from authorities that, if they did know what was going on, too often did the wrong thing. Some that did report their experiences at the time found that their abuser was believed instead, or they were punished or moved.

So will they see justice now? Well, not through the forum, which exists simply to record their stories and has anonymised victims, alleged perpetrators and institutions alike. Dr Happer and her team have no powers to hold anyone to account.

That is the role, partly, of the National Child Abuse Inquiry (NCAI), which continues to work in parallel with the forum. It is also the role of Police Scotland, which insists it will investigate claims of child abuse, however historical. The NCAI, set up after the NCF, has led some survivors to call the forum a white elephant. In contrast, the inquiry is expected to name names and may suggest action be taken against organisations or individuals. It will make recommendations to government about actions that could be taken to ensure such abuse does not happen again.

The hope is that the NCF will also contribute to ensuring this is the case. Meanwhile, it is encouraging and supporting witnesses who also want to give evidence to the inquiry or to the police. But there are questions about the purpose of a process that, at one stage, was anticipating hearing hundreds or even thousands of stories but has so far heard only 78. These accounts, of which only 59 spoke of actual abuse, have cost an average of more than £50,000 each to hear.

Alan Draper, of victim support group INCAS, says such sums could have been used to compensate victims. Deputy First Minister John Swinney has still to explain whether the Scottish Government will offer some form of financial redress, as has been the case in Northern Ireland and in Lambeth Council in London.

Many of the appalling experiences in the forum’s report have not been told before. There is a value in that, and the process may have closed the matter for some. But simply recording and acknowledging the experiences of abuse survivors goes only part of the way to dealing with this shameful legacy from Scotland’s recent past.