Fifty episodes in, and last week we asked for one thing: a party that would put a proper plan for SEND families on the table. This week, one did.
Gaz and Andy start with the Oxford Half Marathon and the £1,360 you helped raise for Ambitious About Autism, including one anonymous £700 that took the pressure right off. Thank you, whoever you are.
Then a listener in our Discord sent in Restore Britain's new SEND policy, and we read it line by line. A lot of it is common sense. Help without needing a diagnosis first. Timely assessments. An end to the postcode lottery. Units inside mainstream schools as well as more specialist schools. A big push on practical, hands-on learning, because school isn't for everybody, and some of the kids who got written off as trouble are running their own firms thirty years on.
Some of it raises hard questions. Who decides there is overdiagnosis? Who decides what a "genuine" disability is? Gaz puts it plainly: if you think there's overdiagnosis, show us the evidence. Andy makes the case for paying for help early, before a child who got none ends up somewhere far more expensive.
This is not an endorsement of any party. It is two dads asking every party to do the same thing: talk to the families it affects, and show us how it's costed.
Then, because last week got serious, your funniest stories. The dad on a work call who got handed something that wasn't a toy. The naked trip down the soft play slide. A lesson in what rhymes with duck. And the half-hour drive for Thomas's sausages that ended on the kitchen floor.
Timestamps
00:00 Cold open
00:19 Intro
00:27 Back from the Oxford Half, and £1,360 raised
04:04 The Indi app, and why we said yes
08:46 What we're wearing
10:13 A party finally publishes a SEND policy
12:42 Overdiagnosis: who decides?
14:01 Help without needing a diagnosis first
14:50 Timely assessments and the postcode lottery
16:00 More specialist schools, and units in mainstream
17:03 School isn't for everybody
19:12 The line that will divide people
24:15 Pay now, or pay for prisons later
25:30 Judging a party on one issue
29:18 Politically homeless
32:04 Your funny stories
32:36 The dad on the work call
36:30 What rhymes with duck
38:17 Backup sausages
39:45 You think it's only happening to you
40:52 Studio news, guests, and the book
Indi app: use code ADC40 for 40% off your first three months after the free trial.
Gaz and Andy are two dads raising autistic children, talking about the bits nobody else says out loud.
Link tree in bio.