Andi Brierley
Writer, Public Speaker, and Life Coach in Leeds, UK
Andi is the Head of Access, Participation & Outcomes at Leeds Trinity University (LTU). Andi joined LTU as a Senior University Teacher in 2021, delivering the Unlocked MSc in Applied Custodial Leadership in partnership with the Unlocked Graduates. Andi now has Full Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy.
Andi has an extensive 15-year career in Youth Justice - authoring three crime and justice books. Within his writing, he combines his practice experience and research; alongside his lived experience of adverse childhood experiences, the care experience, school exclusion, drug addiction; & youth incarceration.
Andi started his career working within the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme (ISSP) with young people assessed as high risk (not my term), or on release from custody on intensive licence conditions. This involved project management and risk managing children and young people through connection's and participation methods. Andi won several Leeds City Council awards while in this role by connecting with children in trouble & involving them in the design of projects to raise money for Martin House Hospice.
Having qualified in 2013, Andi then became a Youth Justice Officer & produced Pre-sentence Reports for Youth & Crown Courts to ensure children recieved a proportionate sentence. Always ensuring the child's voice and context was at the centre of the sentencing process.
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 - safely diverting children in care away from the justice system.
Andi has an interest in the relational experience of those that enter the justice system and those that work within it. A particular interest in Legitimacy, Power, and Experiential Peers. This is the basis of his PhD.