A royal commission will next month quiz senior government officials about the Commonwealth's response to a report into the sexual abuse of children in immigration detention centres.

Key points: The Making Children Safer report was released in May 2016

The Making Children Safer report was released in May 2016 It examined 242 incidents of child abuse in immigration detention

It examined 242 incidents of child abuse in immigration detention Next month a royal commission will probe government officials over their response to the report

The Child Protection Panel made several recommendations in its report released last May after concerns about the treatment of children in detention, including reports of abuse.

The Making Children Safer report assessed 242 incidents of child abuse, 40 per cent of the victims were under the age of six.

The panel called for better incident reporting but noted a major effort had been made to transfer children into the community in Australia from offshore centres.

It went on to recommend the Department of Immigration and Border Protection ensure the risks to children in community detention environments are understood, and for improvement in the capacity of frontline staff to respond to critical incidents.

It did not make any recommendations relating to the Nauru Regional Processing Facility, saying the facility was being operated by the Government of Nauru.

Commonwealth representatives will be questioned as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse hearing, which will begin in Sydney on March 6.

It is the 51st hearing of the four-year-long royal commission.

Children moved from detention

Departmental statistics from December show 45 children were being held at the Nauru facility.

Less than five children are in other detention facilities, while 234 children were living in the community.

There are no children being held at the Manus Island facility.

The royal commission has announced it will look at the response as part of a round of public hearings next month in Sydney into Commonwealth, state and territory policies on child protection at various institutions.

In welcoming the royal commission hearing, the Human Right Law Centre said keeping children in offshore facilities was harmful.

"Any scrutiny of the Australian Government's role in harming innocent children in its care is vital, welcome and overdue," the centre's executive director Hugh de Kretser said.

As part of next month's hearings, the royal commission will also examine the response of the states and territories to the Federal Government's announcement last November of a Commonwealth Redress Scheme for the survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

The Commonwealth said victims would be able to access up to $150,000 each.