Sandy is Chairman of the Parole Board for Scotland, a Non Executive Director of the State Hospital Board, Independent Chairman of the Scottish institute for Excellence in Social Work Education and Visiting Professor at the Glasgow School of Social Work.

He is also a Director of Care at Visions an independent provider of residential care for children. He is a member of the National Advisory Body on Offender Management and the National Social Work Forum.

Sandy qualified as a social worker at the Universities of Strathclyde and Aberdeen and took up his first post as a social worker in Clackmannanshire in 1973. He then held several roles in Central region before being appointed Director of Social Work in Borders Region in1987. He became the first Director of Social Work in South Lanarkshire Council in 1995 and remained there until retiring in March 2006.