Andi is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Investigation and Policing at Leeds Trinity University (LTU). Until recently (10/07/24), he was the Head of Access, Participation and Outcomes within the Office for Institutional Equity at LTU. Andi joined LTU as a University Teacher in September 2021 to deliver the Unlocked MSc in Applied Custodial Leadership in partnership with the Unlocked Graduates. Andi transitioned from practice to Higher Education (HE) and now has a Full Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy (HEA). Andi also currently works in Wetherby Young Offenders Institution (YOI), facilitating the Clear Approach Group in partnership with the Care Leavers Association (CLA). This is a peer led initiative that provides voice to young people in custody and enables them to share their own version of events with services such as a probation, youth justice, education and social care to help support preventative practice. This project is predicated on desistance principles that enable the young people to develop a positive self-narrative script, even within the constraints of prison. 

Previous to this transition into HE, Andi had an extensive 15-year career in youth justice. Andi has authored three crime and justice books, which combine his practice experience, research whilst in practice, and his lived experience of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), the care experience, school exclusion, drug addiction and youth incarceration. 

Andi started his career working within the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP) with children and young people assessed as high risk, or on release from custody on intensive licence conditions. This involved project management and risk managing children and young people through engagement and participation methods. Andi won several awards for Leeds City Council while in this role by engaging children and young people and involving them in the design of projects to raise money for Martin House Hospice, which is a hospice for terminally ill children. 

Having qualified in 2013, Andi then case managed prevention, diversion and high-risk justice involved children and young people within a multi-agency framework of Assessment, Plan, Intervention and Supervision (APIS). Coordinating services around children and young people to prevent them offending or committing further offences. This involved completing risk assessments and producing pre-sentence reports for Youth and Crown Court. 

Andi then went on to Manage a Family Intervention Service (FIS) area team. A Leeds City Council service that works with Children and Families with Complex Needs to safely prevent Social Care involvement. Andi managed and supervised 6 Lead Family Workers and 6 Support Workers. FIS delivered Whole Family Assessments and the lead workers were responsible for delivering multi-agency family work to improve outcomes for children. This was delivered within the Common Assessment Framework (CAF). 

As a result of the findings of the Prison Reform Trust's independent review of the disproportionate number of children in care and care leavers in the Criminal Justice System, Andi developed the role of the Child Looked After Specialist in Leeds. This required front line work, data collection and strategic oversight of developing policies and protocols to prevent the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care. Andi has developed countless partnerships between agencies that improve outcomes for children in Leeds, including the development and coordination of the Reducing Offending for Children Looked After (ROCLA) Panel. 

There is no escpaing that Andi's background played a key role in driving his motivation to improve the ability of services to help imporve the lives of those caught in a cycle of crime and punishment. However, these experiences shape, but do not dictate his philosophy, practice and research. 

Andi has an interest in the relational experience of those who enter the Criminal Justice System and those who work within it. A particular interest in whether people with lived experience of crime and punishment can help others to desist from offending, which is the focus of his PhD.