The article was also written by Jordan Bissell.

This story is about Government and Politics.

There is an inquiry into child safety in Queensland. It is looking at the cost of residential care.

Here is a short summary:

The former child safety minister, Leanne Linard, knew about the growing number of children in care and the lack of resources.

The pandemic and 'ice epidemic' made things worse for child safety.

What will happen next?

Public hearings will finish on Friday. The inquiry's findings will be out next month.

The former minister knew about the problems with resources and the increase in children in care.

The state government has a new plan to move children into family homes and help foster carers.

The inquiry was started to fix the child safety system.

Leanne Linard was told about the problems with resources.

Many children in care have been hurt or neglected. One child's care costs $2.6 million per year.

The public hearings talked about the high cost of residential care.

The former minister knew about the lack of foster carers and the many children in care.

This often meant using expensive emergency accommodation.

The former minister had many briefings about the problems with placements.

There were more children in care during the former minister's time.

The former minister was in charge from November 2020 to May 2023.

The child safety budget was around $1.5 billion in January 2020.

The former minister was told that the budget would have problems every year.

The more expensive IPS funding was used because the other funding was all gone.

Residential care is 10 to 15 times more expensive than family-based care.

IPS placements are only meant to be temporary.

Residential care is very expensive.

The former minister was briefed about the increase in IPS placements.

The 'ice epidemic' affected some parts of the state.

The pandemic made things worse for child safety.

The pandemic limited the availability of staff and housing.

The goals to improve child safety were not realistic because of the pandemic.

The pandemic made it hard to get facilities for services.

Some children were placed on IPS agreements during the pandemic.

It was thought that these children would not need long-term care after the pandemic.

The former minister said that IPS was used because it was not preferable to use long-term contracts.

The current minister said that the government was warned many times.

The evidence heard in the inquiry was very bad.

The current minister said that the evidence was damning.

The government knew about the over-reliance on residential care.

The current minister will review the inquiry's recommendations quickly.

The government has a new $27 million plan to improve the system.

The plan will move 100 children into family homes and find 100 more carers.

The plan is currently in three locations.

If the plan works, it will be used all over Queensland.

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