State’s treatment of autistic people had been denounced by UN and described as being ‘50 years behind’ rest of world

The French government has launched a €340m (£297m) strategy in an effort to make amends for the country’s scandalous state treatment of children and adults with autism, which has been denounced by the United Nations as a “widespread violation” of citizens’ rights.

President Emmanuel Macron, who made the need to improve the education and rights of people with autism a part of his election campaign, said he wanted everyone “to be included in school and everyday life”.

The strategy was launched by the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, on Friday afternoon and intends, in the words of one government adviser, to “at last” give children with a neurodevelopmental disorder access to mainstream education in France – a legal right that they have consistently been denied.

'France is 50 years behind': the 'state scandal' of French autism treatment Read more

There will also be a drive to improve support for autistic adults, only 0.5% of whom are in regular employment, and who are routinely admitted to psychiatric hospitals. The government acknowledged that an adult with autism in France is three times more likely to be in long-term psychiatric care than the rest of the population. Rights groups decry the treatment as inadequate and inappropriate.

In its most recent report on the subject, the UN says children with autism in France “continue to be subjected to widespread violations of their rights”. The French state has had to pay hundreds of thousands of euros in damages to families for inadequate care of autistic children in recent years.

The UN found the majority of children with autism in France did not have access to mainstream education and many were “still offered inefficient psychoanalytical therapies, overmedication and placement in psychiatric hospitals and institutions”. Parents who oppose the institutionalisation of their children “are intimidated and threatened and, in some cases, lose custody of their children”, it added.

A 2005 law guarantees every child the right to education in a mainstream school, but the Council of Europe has condemned France for not respecting it. Pressure groups estimate that only 20% of autistic children are in school, compared with 70% in England. Those who are, are often only accepted part time.

Campaign groups and lawyers have described France as being “50 years behind” the rest of the world in its attitude towards autism, with an overreliance on outdated psychoanalytical approaches.

On Friday, Sophie Cluzel, the disabilities minister, said: “Inclusion is at the heart of this new strategy”, and that the government would seek to fully integrate citizens who for too long had been “relegated to institutions”. Cluzel said there had been “a cultural problem” in France, whereby citizens who displayed difference had been ghettoised and shut away, denied access to everyday life.

The government’s plan intends to increase diagnosis and early years support. It said that until now autism diagnosis was poor and too late – almost half of autistic children in France are diagnosed between six and 16.

There will also be an increase in scientific research into autism – an area in which France lags far behind other countries.

The government also said it would train doctors, teachers and early years staff – and overhaul the way school support staff were trained and recruited – in order to ensure that all autistic children were guaranteed a place in school.

Danièle Langloys, the head of the group Autisme France, said it was “strong” of the government to now insist on delivering the legal right of education for all, but she wondered how it would force schools to comply.

Hugo Horiot, a French writer, actor and director who is on the autism spectrum and whose latest book Autisme, J’accuse argues the need for French society to fully benefit from autistic people’s skills and intelligence, told the Guardian that in order to honour its promises, the government needed to redirect state funds currently being poured into the hospital and psychiatric system to deal with autism.

Horiot said: “In terms of inclusive schooling, this is good, but €340m is a drop in the ocean. The question is: will the government now go looking for the €7bn that state auditors revealed in January is spent each year on autism? Will the government transfer those state funds away from the medical and hospital lobby and instead put it towards schools?”