Sandy joined the Institute of Education in 1995. She became a founding member of the EPPI-Centre (the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordinating Centre) and developed a stream of work addressing Perspectives, Participation and Research. She directed the work of the Social Science Research Unit from 2015 to 2020.

Sandy is now Professor of Public Policy at UCL Social Research Institute and a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of Johannesburg.

She is a member of the Board of the Campbell Collaboration, a Cochrane editor with two review groups - Consumers and Communication, and Infectious Diseases - and was a co-convenor of the Cochrane Agenda and Priority Setting Methods Group. She is a founder member of the Partnership for Evidence and Equity in Responsive Social Systems (PEERSS) and co-edits ‘Research for All’ an open-access, peer-reviewed journal focusing on research that involves universities and communities, services or industries working together.