BBC secondments

Update: Closing date extended to 11 October

GSS Emerging Talent are pleased to offer three exciting opportunities for experienced analysts to work within the BBC for a three-month placement in 2025, the first of which is 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. We are unfortunately unable to offer a secondment in Salford in 2025 but expect that this will be available again in 2026.

The roles would suit a Grade 7 or experienced SEO from one of the analytical professions. Your salary for this professional development opportunity will continue to be paid by your parent department, and departments will not be able to claim salary re-imbursements from the BBC. Therefore, 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 2025 should they be allocated to quarter one.

The successful candidates will be representing their department and the Government Statistical Service (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 one 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 2025
• July to September 2025
• October to December 2025

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 has now been extended to 11 October.

You can read the following blogs from previous secondees: 

• My secondment to the BBC – Olivia Podmore
• My BBC secondment – Hannah Cox
• Three things I learned on my BBC secondment – Jack Rodgers