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Learning from AiG Month

AiG Month is first and foremost a learning and development event, so we try to capture important learning outcomes and top tips from every session. Every year we also publish blogs from colleagues working across government.

We publish learning outcomes for every AiG Month event.

Learning outcomes from AiG Month 2026

Week 1

The first event of AiG Month 2026 was hosted by Alison Woodhouse and Jess Mitchell, co-directors of analysis at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

Reflecting on the event, Jess commented:

“A real highlight was to be able to share our personal stories and views on ‘why impact matters’. There were three things I shared on the ‘why’ for me, and why analysis in government is so exciting a career:

  1. The exceedingly front-line things: supporting our staff on the phones with information on the ‘right’ cases to work to bring in the money the exchequer needs to fund our public services,
  2. The ‘newsworthy’ things: the advice we give Ministers on decisions that can move the economy.
  3. The ‘crisis’ things, when analysis is needed more than ever. I have been fortunate in my career to see how impressively civil servants pull together in crises; from modelling the impact of the Covid support schemes, attempting to model the economic impacts of Brexit, and using analysis to support customers through intensely personal and vulnerable times in their lives.

Alison added:

“And I enjoyed sharing a few reflections on how analysts can make impact, irrespective of grade and without necessarily being the ‘expert’ in a subject:

  1. Communication skills – tailoring our messages so that we can give the one-sentence summary of our findings, and also be able to answer probing questions on the detail if needed. Catering for the huge breadth of our audiences, in terms of their familiarity in engaging with analysis and also in their time or appetite to get into the details.
  2. Networks – building connections with colleagues and externals so that we can draw on their deep knowledge, and their support.
  3. Our impacts on our colleagues as people – we can all be leaders at all stages of our careers! By bringing our whole selves and all of our knowledge and curiosity to work, and creating the shared sense of mission and momentum that helps motivate all those around us. I am constantly inspired by the fresh thoughts of our newest analytical recruits, and the scope for the curious ‘why do we do it like this?’ question to sometimes prompt us to realise that our approach was perfect when we decided it several years ago, but it’s now time to take a fresh look. The culture in which we all work as analysts is largely created by us!

Both Jess and Alison remarked:

From our own learning perspectives, it was great to see colleagues share on the call, through their questions and the word clouds, the sheer range of ways analysts make impact. Together we were able to think about our impact across Government in all our roles – through statistics, policy making, operational support and everything in between, at every grade and career stage.  For us, this highlighted the importance of connecting across government and the analytical function and made for a great opening event to the month.

In this session, colleagues from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) shared their work with the TRUUD university consortium to develop new tools and guidance for assessing the health impacts of urban design interventions. The work identifies more than 200 pathways through which urban design affects health, including housing quality, access to green space and local facilities, air and noise pollution, and transport. 

The following resources provide more information about this work:

This session was presented by Steve Ellerd-Elliott (Joint GSS Deputy Head) and Justyna Owen (Co-chair of the GSS Future Statistician Task and Finish group) on 5 May.

Summary

The Future Statistician vision is a collaborative project between the Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Royal Statistical Society (RSS). It sets out recommendations for supporting the skills and role of statisticians for the next decade, based on research and consultation.

The recommendations within the vision highlight the importance of working together more closely across Analysis Function to combine expertise, develop best practice and shape questions. It demonstrates how statisticians and analysts should be involved and consulted throughout processes to add value.

Working together to support analysis will include communicating openly, explaining evidence clearly to improve trust, building connections, being involved in processes early, and sharing knowledge to develop skills and challenge misuse of statistics. Similarly, managing data well through shared standards, open code, and reproducible pipelines is a collective responsibility.

Attendees at this session received an overview of the recommendations and took part in polls to evidence what was most important to them. The most popular recommendations were:

  • R1: Equipping for technological change
  • R3: Career progression and learning

‘Being a skilled communicator’, ‘Championing the use of data’, and ‘Serving public needs and interests’ were voted as the most important aspects of the vision, and members were keen to share knowledge and improve connection and transparency across the Analysis Function professions.

Learn more about the vision

Resources are available to support you to learn about the vision and its implementation. Access:

If you have questions about this session or accessing the resources, email GSSNet@statistics.gov.uk.

In this session, Chris Ganley from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) demonstrated the new award-winning NI Public Expenditure web pages.

He covered how NISRA worked to address the project objectives which were to:

  • increase transparency of Northern Ireland Executive departmental spending
  • make information accessible to a wide audience including policymakers, public and schools
  • provide multiple levels of detail
  • ensure outputs complied with accessibility standards

Chris also covered some of the major learnings from the project which included:

  1. Transparency requires design, not just data.
  2. User centred design significantly improves analytical impact.
  3. Multidisciplinary collaboration strengthens analytical products.
  4. Accessibility must be embedded from the outset.
  5. Agile delivery is effective for analytical communication projects.
  6. Reproducibility and sustainability are as important as launch.

This presentation was followed by a demonstration of the product.

The team recently won the Analysis in Government (AiG) Award for Communication for this important work.

In this session, Ed Humpherson, Head of the Office for Statistics Regulation, addressed the elephant in the analytical room: the increasing pressure on analysis. He diagnosed the structural causes of this pressure, ranging from the lump of data fallacy and the flawed analogy of government to a machine with levers policy makers can pull, to the shifting nature of trust in society. In this context, Ed argued that that only way for analysis to thrive is to nurture a mindset of openness and humility, and to channel this mindset into trustworthy communication, pre-bunking, user engagement, and intelligent transparency. He summarised the talk in four different ways for different learning styles – and allowed the audience to suggest an appropriate sound track for his presentations in future!

Watch the recording of Ed’s session on YouTube.

Deepen your understanding of this topic by accessing the following articles and resources:

This live demonstration showcased the Global Supply Chains Intelligence Programme (GSCIP) platform and demonstrated how it is transforming the way government understands and responds to global supply chain risks.

The team recently won the Analysis in Government (AiG) Award for Impact for their work.

Find out more about this work by accessing the following articles and resources:

This session showcased how BOLD has evolved into a powerful cross-government partnership that produces policy insights, frontline tools and AI experimentation that directly support better decision making. The session used a compelling case study on supporting children of prisoners to show how linked data is enabling new official statistics, tracking lived experiences, and powering “test and learn” pilots with local authorities.

Deepen your understanding and find out more about this work by accessing the following articles and resources:

In this session, the Scottish Government’s Whole Systems Intelligence Analysis Unit shared how an iterative Reproducible Analytical Pipeline (RAP) approach transformed the production of management information on NHS Scotland waiting times. The team spoke about how RAP principles were applied in practice to streamline routine reporting, improve consistency and speed up turnaround, all while working within real‑world constraints.

They covered the principles of RAP and iterative working detailing some of the products and systems the team felt were most beneficial to their RAP project.

Main takeaway points include the following:

  • RAP is not just coding: the better the project management the better the RAP project
  • it is important to design your dream scenario from the start focusing on where you are starting and where you would like to end – from this framework you can implement the possible, but leaves open opportunities to implement the “impossible for now”
  • mapping your processes – existing and new – is a really powerful tool for communication and project planning

Interactive and multi team tools include:

  • Whiteboard – for system mapping
  • Loop – for project meeting and task management
  • OneNote – a single source of truth that can document your RAP
  • regular meetings – online or in person

Deepen your understanding and find out more about this work by accessing the following articles and resources:

In this panel session, Gill Churchill, Head of Research and Evaluation (Early years and Social care) at Ofsted and Mairi-Anne Macdonald, Director of Development and Innovation at Research in Practice, a part of the National Children’s Bureau, were asked questions about the commissioning journey, inclusive methods and findings of the research. The following supporting links will help deepen your understanding of this work:

Week 2

In this session Eva Grace, an investment actuary from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD), discussed investment as a mechanism to support government’s mission of kickstarting economic growth in the UK. Eva spoke about the UK investment landscape, highlighting that:

  • institutional investors make up around 70% the £10 trillion assets held by UK investors – of those institutional investors, pension schemes make up the largest group, with insurers coming second
  • pension schemes and insurers have been investing less of their assets in UK companies since the 1990s – this is in part because the UK has become a smaller proportion of the global stock market

Eva then gave an introduction to asset classes, their risk profiles and their return outlooks. She also gave an overview of what investors want, which includes:

  • acting within their ecosystem – the investment landscape incentivises more than you might think
  • a good target for investment returns and other investment considerations – this involves ensuring governance is effective in setting and monitoring the target and that there are no unintended consequences from the target
  • a well-defined risk tolerance that reflects the pain that you are looking to avoid as an investor and takes account of inflation

Eva concluded by highlighting opportunities for government to focus on the investment ecosystem including:

  • incentives
  • regulatory changes
  • investable pipeline development
  • use of public financial institutions
  • capital requirement considerations
  • product design for defined contributions (DC) liquidity
  • disclosure and league tables to improve transparency

In this session, the Ministry of Justice introduced Laurium, an open‑source package that uses large language models to unlock insight from unstructured text. Designed as a flexible bridge between your data and major AI providers and frameworks, Laurium enables analysts to extract insight in a scalable, reusable way.

The session explored:

  • why Laurium was developed
  • how Laurium supports policy‑relevant analysis
  • how open‑source, AI‑enabled tools can responsibly expand analytical capability

Laurium was the winner of this year’s Analysis in Government Award for Innovative Methods.

Angie Tailby (Archivist) and Vanessa Whittle (Research Librarian) from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spoke about the role that historical documents and published information can play in evidence-informed policy-making. Illustrated with a case study of a rapid review of labour market policies since 1997, they demonstrated how well-curated historical collections, professional expertise and good information management practices are used in the analysis and decision-making process.

Useful resources

For literature searching:

Archives:

About knowledge and information management:

Each Government Department will have its own guidance on good records and information management. Try a search for “information management” (using quote marks) in your organisation’s intranet.

In this session, the National Audit Office (NAO) shared how it mapped the asylum system end‑to‑end for the first time, revealing the causes of delays and inefficiencies and helping government move beyond short‑term fixes towards a more sustainable, whole‑system approach.

The presenters spoke about how:

  • mapping complex delivery systems across organisational boundaries can reveal root causes of poor performance by exposing constraints, dependencies, feedback loops and displaced problems that are not visible when analysing individual organisations in isolation, and shift attention away from short-term, local fixes to more sustainable solutions
  • data matters, but meaningful systems analysis is possible even when data are fragmented – this needs effort invested in manual data cleaning, case‑level reconstruction and analytical judgement
  • effective whole-system working depends on a small number of core enablers: shared system‑level objectives and outcomes; clear accountability and governance across the end‑to‑end system; timely, robust and shared data; and a resilient, strategic approach to capacity and workforce
  • interactive analytical products, such as system maps and flow visualisations, can make complex analysis accessible to non‑specialist audiences by combining narrative guidance with the ability for users to explore parts of the system most relevant to their interests – the team’s “Analysis of the asylum system” takes a visual ‘scrollytelling’ approach and showcases the power of interactive visualisation

If you would like to develop your knowledge further, the NAO has good practice guides for senior leaders on adopting a systems thinking approach.

In this session, colleagues from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) presented their landmark Health Inequalities in Health Protection Report 2025 which won the Analysis in Government Award for Inclusion. The report highlights long‑standing, systemic inequalities in health protection and demonstrates how evidence can be used to bring these issues to the forefront of public and government attention.

The session explored:

  • how the UKHSA team approached their work
  • the analytical methods used
  • important findings
  • the importance of working together across teams

In this session, colleagues from Ofsted presented their work to develop a national index of sufficiency for children’s social care. The session gave an overview of the children’s social care sector in England and the challenges it faces, before exploring how the index was created.

During the session, attendees:

  • developed an understanding of how a composite index can bring together multiple aspects of a complex policy area (such as children’s social care) into a single coherent framework
  • gained insight into the hierarchical structure of an index – including how indicators are combined into subdomains, domains and an overall score
  • improved their understanding of the main considerations when choosing indicators, including directionality, distribution, and correlation
  • learned how shrinkage can be applied to reduce noise in small datasets and avoid over‑interpretation of outliers
  • contributed to the development of an ‘index for supermarkets’ – this provided practical experience of how these analytical approaches can be applied and tested in a real‑world context

In this session, analysts from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) spoke about how climate scenario analysis can be applied in practice to assess risk and support resilient public sector decision making.

Deepen your understanding and find out more about this work by accessing the following articles and resources:

In this session, Cian Siôn, Jonathan Bonville-Ginn and Cerys Ponting reflected on the journey of building the Welsh Government’s first input-output tables. They discussed how the team:

  • addressed long‑standing data gaps
  • applied innovative methods where regional data were limited
  • developed tables tailored to Wales’ economic context

Deepen your understanding and find out more about this work by:

Week 3

In this session, colleagues from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) demonstrated how linked data is being used to support operational decision making in probation. The team spoke about the digital dashboard they have created to bring together information from internal and external data sources. This gives practitioners a single, integrated view of individual offender data. 

The presenters explained how:

  • improved data access has reduced operational issues, increased productivity and improved user satisfaction
  • multidisciplinary collaboration between data scientists, data engineers, data sharing professionals, evaluation experts, policy colleagues and frontline staff made this work possible

Building a live operational tool takes time. It is a long, multistage process involving several stakeholders with limited availability. Early engagement and establishing clear ways of working are vital.

This session was led by Alec Waterhouse, Head of Energy, Infrastructure and Markets Analysis at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). Alec led on the recent update to the AQuA book and was involved in the development of the original AQuA Book. Alec spoke about:

  • why quality assurance (QA) matters – to protect reputation and build trust, as well as to safeguard colleagues and customers
  • how core principles endure – RIGOUR remains central to AQuA (an acronym derived from the words ‘repeatable’, ‘independent’, ‘grounded in reality’, ‘objective’, ‘uncertainty-managed’, and ‘robust’), and you must get a third party to review your work
  • the latest updates to the AQuA Book – including publication requirements for business-critical models, maturity model covering skills, guidance and QA practice, and clearer language (aligned with the Analysis Function standard)

Alec advised attendees to:

  • check their department’s revised QA guide
  • develop update checklists and consider Git-based templates
  • consider developing a protocol for what to do if you identify an issue

In this session, the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Presentation Champions Network explained how to write about data in a clear, engaging, and impactful way. The Network works to improve the presentation of data and statistics across government. Analysis that is communicated well should:

  • be tailored to the audience
  • use plain language
  • concentrate on the important points
  • put the data into context
  • have a logical and organised structure
  • be transparent about the strengths, limitations, and any uncertainty

Examples of good practice include:

More tips and examples are available in the full ‘writing about data’ guidance.

In this session, colleagues from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) shared how their data science team built the updated Innovation Clusters Map – an interactive tool designed to make complex innovation data easy to explore and understand. The team spoke about the importance of:

  • open-sourcing, and how pleased they were to have open-sourced their code

In this session, colleagues from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) presented new analysis drawing on data made available through the MoJ Data First programme. By linking record‑level offence data from the Police National Computer with education and social care records from the National Pupil Database, the team have been able to explore the backgrounds of children and young people cautioned or sentenced for knife crime, town centre crime, and violence.

The presenters demonstrated how linked administrative data can provide deeper insight into patterns across education, social care and youth offending. They shared how these findings directly support the Government’s Safer Streets Mission, helping to inform evidence‑based decision making on prevention and early intervention.

In this session, colleagues from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) shared how the Electricity Strategy Analysis Team produced analysis that informed the department’s power sector Spending Review settlement. The presenters explained how rigorous scenario modelling and cost‑risk analysis enabled them to explore critical trade‑offs between affordability, security of supply, decarbonisation, and system operability.

The session:

  • covered the consequences of different investment choices
  • highlighted strategic risks to emissions targets and system resilience
  • communicated complex system dynamics in an accessible way

The outputs have been directly informing real‑world decisions on the future power system and have been used in ministerial briefings, Treasury and No.10 negotiations, and cross‑government strategy discussions.

In this session, colleagues from the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) explored why building model and analytical assurance in from the very start leads to better outcomes. The presenters discussed how and when assurance should be applied as analysis develops – from early “back of the envelope” thinking through to analysis supporting major decisions.

The presenters used real examples to show where early, proportionate assurance has worked well, and where failing to do so has led to problems. The session emphasised practical judgement, proportionality and leadership in assuring analytical work.

In this session, the Black Analyst Forum (BAF) introduced its cross‑government network to the wider Analysis Function community. The session outlined:

  • who BAF is
  • why the network was created
  • what BAF aims to achieve across government analytical professions

The presenters shared the experiences that have informed the creation of the forum, the impact it is working towards, and how engaging with a broad cross‑government audience helps BAF test ideas, build momentum and strengthen its contribution to analysis in government.

Week 4

In this session, analysts from the devolved governments explored why analysts should care about devolution and UK‑wide data. The discussion covered how different policy responsibilities, data systems and legislative contexts across the UK affect data comparability, coherence and interpretation.

The speakers gave practical reflections on:

  • common challenges analysts face when working with UK‑wide data
  • the risks of misinterpretation
  • how stronger collaboration across administrations can improve insight, transparency and decision making

In this session, analysts from Department for Transport (DfT) and Home Office provided a practical introduction to building Discrete Event Simulation models in R, drawing on their award-winning queue simulation model supporting the implementation of the EU Entry and Exit System (EES).

In this session, Professor Kirstine Dale explored how cutting‑edge AI is reshaping UK weather and climate services. The session examined the Met Office’s AI for Numerical Weather Prediction programme and how it is delivering faster, more accurate forecasts to support the public, emergency responders, transport networks and industry.

Kirstine also reflected on the Met Office’s wider leadership in data science, digital twins and environmental innovation, showing how AI is being translated into meaningful impact.

In this flagship AiG Month session, Sir David Spiegelhalter explored how we can better communicate uncertainty in an uncertain age. His presentation drew on decades of experience at the intersection of statistics, risk and public understanding to reflect on why uncertainty is often misunderstood, misrepresented or ignored – and what analysts can do differently.

Sir David used real‑world examples to challenge common assumptions about certainty, confidence and precision, and offer practical insights into how analysts can communicate evidence, risk and uncertainty in ways that inform – not confuse – decision makers and the public.

In this session, colleagues from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) shared how micro‑simulation modelling has been used to support the design of a major package of Criminal Court Reforms. With over 78,000 outstanding Crown Court cases and trials being listed years into the future, the need for robust, defensible evidence has never been greater.

The speakers shared how they modelled the inherently complex court system to understand the likely impacts of policy proposals, helping ministers decide on – and defend – a highly sensitive and controversial set of reforms. The session also explored how analytical insight informed decisions that will fundamentally change a system that is centuries old.

In this session, colleagues involved in the statistical design of Census 2031 spoke about:

  • how the census has evolved over time and the impact it has today
  • what the next census could look like and why it matters for analysts across government

The speakers used real-world case studies to show how census data supports funding allocation, service delivery, and representation, and how choices made now will affect the quality, usability and trustworthiness of population statistics for years to come.

The session demonstrated why Census 2031 is relevant far beyond the census community, highlighting implications for policy analysis, service planning, and evidence‑based decision making across government, public services and wider society.

Learning from previous years

Take a look at the learning outcomes and additional resources from previous years:

Got a story to share?

We’re always keen to find out more about members of the Analysis Function. Why not submit some written content for AiG Month? You could write a blog on the theme of “impact in action”, respond to our Day in the Life of call, or answer our Five Quickfire Questions. Find out more about how to contribute written content for AiG Month.

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