Staff profiles
Andrew Underdown
BA (Honours) Economics, MA Social Administration and Social Work, Diploma in Professional Management
Areas of research interest
- probation management and practice
- policy implementation
- community penalties and reducing re-offending
Career background
From 2001 to March 2010 Andrew worked in senior roles in the National Probation Directorate - as regional manager for the north-west and latterly as development manager leading on knowledge management in the National Offender Management Service headquarters.
Previously, from 1976 to 2001, he worked in a range of practitioner, middle and senior manager roles with Greater Manchester Probation Service. From 1995, he became centrally involved in the national developments which led to the probation What Works initiative. He was seconded to HM Inspectorate of Probation from 1996 to 1998 to lead the inspectorate's What Works project and provide the underpinning framework for what became the national strategy.
Andrew remained closely involved in advising on the subsequent implementation of effective practice developments as a member of the Correctional Services Accreditation Panel from 1999 to 2007. He was associated with the piloting of offender management in the north-west region and in the developments in prison and probation working in support of reducing re-offending delivery plans.
From 2007, he took a leading role in the application of knowledge management approaches within the field of probation.
Selected publications
Strategies for Effective Offender Supervision (with T Ellis), HM Inspectorate of Probation, 1998
Effectiveness of Community Penalties (with Professor A Bottoms), 1995
Contributions
Knowledge Matters, NOMS, 2008
Ed. Canton and Hancock, Directory of Probation and Offender Management, 2007
Ed. Bottoms, Gelsthorpe and Rex, Community Penalties - Change and Challenges, 2001
