BBC secondment opportunities

The GSS Careers Team are pleased to offer four exciting opportunities for experienced analysts to work within the BBC for a three-month placement in 2022, starting in January.

The secondments will be based at the headquarters of BBC News in London and successful applicants will be expected to travel and work in London, however, there may be scope to negotiate a hybrid working arrangement but this would be subject to agreement with the Head of Statistics at the BBC, with the expectation of being in the office a minimum of three days per week.

At present the restrictions due to the corona virus pandemic have been lifted, however, should this situation change we would expect the secondee to revert to remote working until instructed otherwise.

The roles would suit a Grade 7 or experienced Senior Executive Officer or fast streamer from one of the analytical professions. Your salary for this professional development opportunity will continue to be paid by your parent department, so applicants should have the approval of their line manager and divisional director before applying.

Role and responsibilities

The successful applicants will work closely with the BBC’s Head of Statistics to fact check, provide figures and briefings and ensure the robust and accurate use of statistics in any BBC outputs across a range of topics, specifically through:

• advising on the interpretation and presentation of statistical claims in surveys, press releases and news stories
• helping journalists find the right data source and come to conclusions supported by the evidence when working with official statistics
• conducting ad hoc statistical analyses of data for new stories with the statistics and data journalism teams
• promoting good statistics and statistical thinking to journalists

Person specification

• Strong communication skills with ability to provide advice and share knowledge with customers and colleagues.
• Ability to influence decision making, working with credibility and proactively with customers to share knowledge and information.
• Experience of forming effective relationships with stakeholders and ability to utilise a wide network.
• A broad and demonstrative understanding of official statistics and ability to look at the broader spectrum of data available.
• Ability to develop and maintain reputation, building trust through quality assurance of work.

Applying

All loans and secondment opportunities are offered based on current satisfactory performance. Applicants must obtain their line-manager’s permission to apply, as well as an endorsement of their application, and approval for release to start in January 2022 should they be allocated to quarter one.

The successful candidates will be representing their department and the GSS and as such will be expected to adhere to their professional standards and the Civil Service code of objectivity and impartiality. Please send a brief expression of interest (no more than 1 side of A4) to GSS.Careers@ons.gov.uk stating how you meet the requirements, as outlined in the person specification. Please also indicate which of the following periods you would like to be placed in:

• January to March 2022
• April to June 2022
• July to September 2022
• October to December 2022

Every effort will be taken to allocate you to your preferred period; however, this cannot always be guaranteed. We’ll carry out a selection exercise based on the roles, responsibilities and person specification criteria. 

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 1 October 2021.

Previous secondee blogs

Find out what you might expect from a secondment to the BBC from previous secondees:

My unexpected secondment at the BBC, by Helen Bray

My secondment at BBC News: How to pitch stats and influence people, by Danielle Cornish

My summer placement at BBC News, by Faye Gracey

My secondment at the BBC during the General Election, by Sumit Rahman

Secondment at BBC News: Expanding my skills set as a consultant statistician, by Kristina Gray