All social and medico-social establishments welcoming disabled people in France will be controlled from 2025, the government announced on Monday March 25, as part of a national strategy to combat abuse targeting disabled or elderly people.

“This strategy plans to control all medico-social establishments housing children and adults with disabilities by 2030. Inspectors will be responsible for verifying that their fundamental rights are respected. Particular attention will be given to the fight against abuse,” the delegated ministry responsible for the elderly and people with disabilities told Agence France-Presse.

In total, 9,200 establishments which welcome people with disabilities are concerned, in particular medical-educational institutes (IME), medical reception homes, specialized reception homes and work assistance establishments and services, specifies the ministry.

This strategy follows the work of the General States of Abuse, which brought together associations, professionals, administrations and affected families in 2023.

In response to a “Forbidden Zone” investigation into state failures in the disability sector

It was published the day after the broadcast, Sunday evening on M6, of an investigation by “Forbidden Zone” into the failures of the State in the disability sector. The program notably shows a dilapidated IME, which refuses to let in parents, alerted by an educator about the deplorable conditions of accommodation for their children.

This investigation also gives voice to parents who claim to have filed a complaint after observing signs of mistreatment of their autistic adult son.

Minister Fadila Khattabi “asked for a mission to be launched with the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs, starting this summer, to monitor the support and guidance of disabled children in EMI”, in reaction to this report, declares the ministry. The conclusions are expected by the end of the year.

After the scandal caused by the publication of the investigative book Les Fossoyeurs, by journalist Victor Castanet, which revealed mistreatment of residents in retirement homes of the private group Orpea (now Emeis), the government announced that the 7,500 Nursing homes in France, public, private and associative, would be controlled.

Half have already been, the others will be by the end of the year, according to the ministry.