Senior Statistical Officer

The Cabinet Office sits at the heart of government. We support the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government, and we are home to a diverse array of business units, professions, and central functions. Sitting in the Cabinet Office, the Government People Group (GPG) exists to work with departments, professions, and functions to build a modern, effective Civil Service. We support the government workforce with the right skills and capability. We are working with leaders to get the right people in the right jobs, with the right skills and continuous learning to excel in their roles.

Within the GPG, Government Skills was set up in 2020 to drive up capability across Government in an evidence-based and impact-led way. Government Skills ensures all civil servants, from entry to most senior leadership, have the core and specialist knowledge, skills and networks they need to deliver great public services and address complex systemic challenges, now and in the future. This work is central to the Public Sector Reform and Efficiency policy area, and supports Mission Delivery by ensuring the workforce has the capability and learning culture to deliver against the Government’s missions.

The Evidence and Impact team within Government Skills is responsible for ensuring that hundreds of millions of pounds of annual spend on developing the skills, knowledge and relationships of the Government workforce is evidence-based and impact-led. We use a combination of analytical methods covering monitoring/data analytics, social research, evaluation, statistics, behavioural and user research, and economic analysis to provide robust, purposeful insights to inform business decisions. Our evidence supports the creation of effective policy and strategy on the future skills needs of the government and wider public sector workforce, and supports effective design, commissioning and delivery of the interventions required to achieve this.

You can find more information about Government Skills on our GOV.

UK page

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/government-skills-and-curriculum-unit including about our team: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/evidence-based-learning-and-development

As Senior Statistical Officer you will lead statistical analysis for Government Skills to understand the relationship between workforce skills, capability-building investments and critical outcomes including Civil Service and people performance, and mission delivery across government and the wider public sector.

You will be a key collaborator in the development and implementation of the Government Skills Data Strategy. This involves ensuring data is harmonised for central analysis and sitting at the heart of policy discussions to ensure data collection is a primary consideration from the outset of any new system or initiative.

Key responsibilities include developing data sharing agreements with Government Departments and facilitating the integration and linkage of complex data sets to allow you and others to conduct effective analysis and statistically robust research/evaluation. Additionally, you will be instrumental in embedding best practices for data quality and management across the directorate as we shape and refine our data strategy on sound statistical principles.

There are a wide range of analytical projects you may become involved with, being responsive to the priorities of the directorate and our wider stakeholders. This is likely to include supporting impact and economic evaluations; producing modelling to guide development of the directorate-wide future operating model, and ensuring the analytical capability of several significant projects.

You will work closely with the senior leadership team within Evidence and Impact and will contribute to the development, maturity and positive culture of the E&I team and the wider Government Skills Directorate.

Responsibilities will include

• Support the development and implementation of a directorate-wide data strategy, taking lead responsibility for agreed areas of the strategy.
• Lead on statistical analysis across the directorate, supporting an evidence-based, impact-led approach to developing the capability of the government and public sector workforce. You will work across the full policy/delivery cycle from identification of the problem/opportunity, through to understanding and influencing implementation, through to formative and summative evaluation of impact, quality and economic value.
• Support on the transition to a new model of data collection, analysis, reporting, insight, research and evaluation.
• Design and manage analytical projects across the full analytical cycle from inception, to design, implementation, reporting and impact, including managing internal and external commissioning where needed, and being day-to-day contact as required.
• Support the teams in meeting stakeholders’ data and analysis needs, using and developing your own knowledge and drawing on appropriate external resources and expertise.
• Ensure that all statistical analysis is high quality, ethical and aligned with relevant frameworks, including the Government Campus Evaluation Strategy and other relevant guidance, including the Magenta Book, the Aqua Book and the Code of Practice for Statistics.
• Promote innovation in statistical methods through applying your existing knowledge and skills, and proactively upskilling yourself, for example, on ethical and robust use of AI within statistical analysis.
• Alongside the Evidence and Impact Team leads, work closely with internal stakeholders to identify, prioritise and connect longer term and immediate data and analysis needs (including understanding data customers’ needs across the civil service).
• Contribute to the effective development of the Evidence and Impact Team by leading on at least one cross-cutting work area, for example, building capacity in statistical analysis across the team.

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