UK Rap pioneer Giggs highlighted the struggles parents of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) pupils in securing appropriate educational assistance for their children.
In an interview with BBC‘s Newsnight on Tuesday (July 8th), the rapper touched on the tumultuous process of trying to secure Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) for his son Israel and daughter Isla.
“Israel has already been refused the EHCP, we had to take it private,” he told presenter Victoria Derbyshire. “We took him to different places to get assessed, [costing] a lot of money, and then he got refused”.
“We’re in the process of appealing, I think it’s the second time we’re appealing now, we’ve been waiting over a year,” he adds. “It’s a nightmare.”
Giggs’ daughter Isla, who is also diagnosed with autism, has also been denied EHCP: “It’s frustrating for the kids as well, man, because they don’t even know what’s going on”.
“We’ve been dragging them up and down the country, taking them to different places to do the assessments. I feel bad for them.”
The musician has been open about his own struggles with autism, which he believes led to him being labelled a “troublemaker” in school: “I always used to answer back all the time and get kicked out of class every single day — until I just thought, well, I’m bad”.
“You take that through life,” he added. “I ended up in prison twice. Obviously, I’m grateful enough to have a career now, and that saved my life. But I don’t want that to happen to Israel”.
In May, school standards minister Catherine McKinnell confirmed that there was a new system for SEND pupils in the works, and declined ruling out narrowing or replacing EHCPs in entirety.
Giggs shared his disagreement with the proposed cuts: “It would be actually smart for the government to throw all their money to autistic people and let us be the super genius or super heroes that we are.
“And then you can have all your tax money, it’s a win-win!” he adds.
Watch the full Newsnight episode via BBC iPlayer here.
