#50 | EHCP & SEND Reform: Who Decides It's Overdiagnosis?

About this episode

<p>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.<br>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.<br>Then a listener in our Discord sent in Restore Britain&#39;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&#39;t for everybody, and some of the kids who got written off as trouble are running their own firms thirty years on.<br>Some of it raises hard questions. Who decides there is overdiagnosis? Who decides what a &quot;genuine&quot; disability is? Gaz puts it plainly: if you think there&#39;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.<br>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&#39;s costed.<br>Then, because last week got serious, your funniest stories. The dad on a work call who got handed something that wasn&#39;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&#39;s sausages that ended on the kitchen floor.<br>Timestamps<br>00:00 Cold open<br>00:19 Intro<br>00:27 Back from the Oxford Half, and £1,360 raised<br>04:04 The Indi app, and why we said yes<br>08:46 What we&#39;re wearing<br>10:13 A party finally publishes a SEND policy<br>12:42 Overdiagnosis: who decides?<br>14:01 Help without needing a diagnosis first<br>14:50 Timely assessments and the postcode lottery<br>16:00 More specialist schools, and units in mainstream<br>17:03 School isn&#39;t for everybody<br>19:12 The line that will divide people<br>24:15 Pay now, or pay for prisons later<br>25:30 Judging a party on one issue<br>29:18 Politically homeless<br>32:04 Your funny stories<br>32:36 The dad on the work call<br>36:30 What rhymes with duck<br>38:17 Backup sausages<br>39:45 You think it&#39;s only happening to you<br>40:52 Studio news, guests, and the book<br>Indi app: use code ADC40 for 40% off your first three months after the free trial.<br>Gaz and Andy are two dads raising autistic children, talking about the bits nobody else says out loud.<br>Link tree in bio.</p>