Allegations of child sexual abuse within Tasmania's out-of-home care system are made on average once a week, an inquiry has been told.
A commission of inquiry is examining state government responses to abuse accusations in the public service, with a focus this week on out-of-home care provision.
Between 2013 and 2021, 439 allegations of abuse were reported.
"(That) equates to on average 52 allegations a year, or one a week. And, of course, we know that child sexual abuse is under-reported," counsel assisting the commission Rachel Ellyard said on Tuesday.
"Some children were the subject of more than one report ... those figures represent 299 individual children."
The system provides care to about 1000 Tasmanian young people who are assessed as being unable to live safely at home and are placed under the guardianship of the state.
A survivor known as Faye said she was groomed and abused as a teenager by the adult son of her foster parents after a clear red flag was missed by Children and Youth Services.
Faye, whose statement was read to the inquiry, was placed in the home in the mid-1990s.
The son moved into the property after being fired from his job.
Faye said child safety officers asked whether she was comfortable with him moving in, but did not provide any details.
She later discovered the son had been sacked because he had a relationship with an underage girl.
"They had a clear red flag, yet they kept us in that home," the statement said.
"If there is any risk to a vulnerable child, that child should be removed from the environment. I accept it would have been traumatising ... but it would have been far less traumatising than the abuse I endured.
"They had the opportunity to protect me but they didn't."
Faye said she disclosed some of the abuse to her foster mother who replied, "Oh is that all".
Years later Faye was contacted by police who said the son had been charged with abusing four or five other girls, including foster kids who had lived at the home.
She said she was not properly supported through the court process.
"Ultimately we lost the court case, I don't really know why," she said.
"I was shattered with the result. I always believed (he) would be held accountable and go to jail."
Ms Ellyard said there were holes in out-of-home care, including inappropriate placement and monitoring of children, despite nine reports since 2011 evaluating the system.
Child and Family Services executive director Claire Lovell said child safety roles were difficult to fill amid a lack of applicants.
She said promotion of child safety officers created shortages on the frontline.
"I know we struggle to keep up with reasonable community expectations around the services we deliver," she said.
The inquiry, which is scheduled to provide a final report by May 2023, has previously been told of abuse allegations in the education system not being investigated and perpetrators being moved to different schools.
The inquiry was called by the state government in November 2020 after abuse allegations against nurse James Geoffrey Griffin received media attention.
