Giggs opens up on struggle to secure education support for his autistic children

Giggs has highlighted the struggles faced by the parents of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) pupils in securing educational assistance for their children. 

In an interview with BBC's Newsnight on Tuesday (July 8), the musician 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."

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Giggs' daughter Isla, who has also been 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 as 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". 

According to The Times, since its introduction in 2014, the number of children on EHCPs has reached around 600,000 — or about one in 20 of all pupils. 

In May, school standards minister Catherine McKinnell confirmed that there was a new system for SEND pupils in the works, and declined to rule out narrowing or replacing EHCPs in their entirety, to much backlash.

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.

Finn Cliff Hodges is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Instagram