Brave reforms are needed to protect the most neglected, abused and disadvantaged kids from a “harmful” child protection system, advocates say.

Calls for transformational change have been made before a Queensland government-backed child safety system inquiry that begins in Brisbane on Wednesday.

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The $20 million, 17-month inquiry will investigate the system’s failures and the damage it has caused. It will also recommend changes to better protect vulnerable children.

Queensland had more than 3000 children living in out-of-home care in 2024, many with traumatic backgrounds and needs not being met by the child safety system.

Elements of the state’s child protection system were not fit for purpose and harmful to children and families, Queensland’s Family and Children Commissioner Luke Twyford said.

“This inquiry can produce the bold and transformational reform needed to deliver better outcomes for Queensland children and families,” he said.

The inquiry must listen to children, young people and families with experience of the system and take action on what they said, Twyford added.

“They know best how the system performs and the changes needed to deliver on the promise the system makes to keep children safe.”

Youth Advocacy Centre chief executive Katherine Hayes said a significant change in the system was urgently needed to improve the lives of vulnerable children facing the “most awful circumstances” every day without the proper assistance of child safety.

They include a 16-year-old girl who had been homeless for about two of the four years she had been under the care of child safety.

“She came to our office recently in a suicidal state, and then she was (admitted to a hospital for) two nights and then on the third day, Child Safety rang us and asked us to drop her back under the bridge where she was living,” Hayes told AAP.

“That’s abhorrent that a rich state like Queensland can’t do better than that.”

The centre called for early intervention support for families, including comprehensive mental health assessments and treatment for children with conditions such as ADHD, autism, developmental delays and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

It also wants financial and practical support provided to kinship carers, more education opportunities for children in care and a focus on safe accommodation for children living on the street, to replace “woeful” residential care homes.

The inquiry will also include childcare facilities to prevent further incidents after one of Australia’s worst pedophiles, Ashley Paul Griffith, was jailed.

Former childcare worker Griffith was given a life sentence in 2024 after pleading guilty to hundreds of sexual offences spanning almost 20 years.

Childcare centre safety has come fresh scrutiny after Joshua Dale Brown was charged with more than 70 sex offences in Victoria.

He is accused of offences against eight kids aged under two at a Melbourne childcare centre.

In Brisbane, a childcare director at a Montessori centre in Brisbane allegedly allowed her convicted husband to work at the centre.

Separately, childcare worker Nicolas James Parisi has been charged with an alleged indecent act involving a four-year-old child.

The Brisbane inquiry will be led by former Federal Court judge Paul Anastassiou KC, with final recommendations due by November 2026.

If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, domestic or family violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au, National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028, Lifeline 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 (for people aged 5 to 25). In an emergency, call 000.