Ensuring Trust – My secondment to the BBC

As a government statistician producing and publishing numbers (for more years than I care to remember!), I’ve always been curious to know how the stats I put out into the wild are received, particularly by one of our more important and visible customers – the media. And I got the chance to do just that at the start of this year when I was seconded to the BBC to work as a Consultant Statistician in the BBC Verify team at New Broadcasting House.

My role primarily involved two things…

The first was to take a weekly view of the whole suite of upcoming government statistics and actually judge which were interesting enough to ‘make the cut’ for a story. This can be through the lens of either what is topical at that moment (take the nuances of counting Russian deaths in Ukraine for example), or what is notable and worthy of a ‘double take’ (30 year record increase in UK poverty), to the more staple big-ticket numbers on which there is an inherent duty to report as these have implications on us all (like the Spring Budget).

The second facet of the role was to provide direct support and advice to journalists across the organisation. This occasionally led to opportunities to really influence stories by providing the space to develop a better understanding of the issue at hand and in turn design effective, novel analysis to better inform it. More often, the role involved advising on the interpretation and presentation of stats, the usability of surveys or FOI data, and how journalists should look to frame any information used to ensure it was credible and trustworthy.

And this is where I think we, as trained government analysts, have a real prospect to lean in and shine.

We are trained to produce trustworthy, quality statistics which aim to add value to the public discourse. Adding to this, the principles of intelligent transparency and demonstrating best practice on clear, impartial communication around ‘complicated numbers’ I found was highly valued and appreciated by all.

Benefits of the Secondment

Professionally, I’d say the main benefit has been learning the ability to process information fast, make decisions at pace, and be comfortable with that! It’s also been a great opportunity to observe the wide range of statistics we put out as government and see how they compare between different departments – some are brilliantly accessible and clear, others, can improve a little further.

Personally, I’ve really enjoyed access to the wider breadth of news information the organisation collects and seeing how this then gets whittled down to the top stories making the headlines that day. New Broadcasting House also offers the space to really max out on ‘BBC tourism’ and, shadow shows and work with reporters you have an interest in (occasionally getting a little star-struck). And yes, that did involve a week of More or Less for me.

If you’re considering the secondment…

Do it! Secondments are a great way to pick up new skills and try out new work cultures while still being firmly anchored to the ‘mothership’.

Applications for opportunities throughout 2025 are open until Friday 4 October 2024. Find out how to apply here.