Government Analysis Function > Vacancies > Secondment opportunities

Secondment opportunities

Grade
Grade 7, or experienced Senior Executive Officer (SEO)
Role type
Closing date
14 Oct 2022
Salary
You would continue on your current salary while on secondment.
Location
London
Open to
Government statisticians
Organisation
BBC News

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) Emerging Talent team are pleased to offer four exciting opportunities for experienced analysts to work at the BBC for a three-month placement in 2023. The first placement will start in January 2023.

Location

The secondments will be based at the headquarters of BBC News in London. Successful applicants will be expected to travel and work in London.

It may be possible to negotiate a hybrid working arrangement, but this would have to be agreed with the Head of Statistics at the BBC. The minimum expectation would be that you come into the office for at least three days per week.

All coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions have now been lifted. If the situation changes, we would expect you to work remotely until told otherwise.

The roles

The roles would suit a Grade 7 or experienced Senior Executive Officer (SEO) from one of the analytical professions. Your salary for this professional development opportunity will continue to be paid by your parent department. Departments will not be able to claim salary re-imbursements from the BBC. This means that applicants should have the approval of their line manager and divisional director before applying.

Responsibilities

The successful applicants will work closely with the BBC’s Head of Statistics. They will fact check, provide figures and briefings, and ensure that statistics are used comprehensively and accurately in any BBC outputs across a range of topics. This includes:

  • 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
  • analysing statistical data for new stories with the statistics and data journalism teams
  • promoting good statistics and statistical thinking to journalists

Person specification

You must have:

  • strong communication skills with ability to provide advice and share knowledge with customers and colleagues
  • the ability to influence decision making and work with credibility
  • the ability to work proactively with customers to share knowledge and information
  • experience of forming effective relationships with stakeholders and ability to work with a wide network of people
  • a broad understanding of official statistics and the ability to look at the wider spectrum of data available
  • the ability to develop and maintain reputation, building trust through quality assurance of work

How to apply

All loans and secondment opportunities are offered based on current satisfactory performance. You must get:

  • your line-manager’s permission to apply
  • an endorsement of your application
  • approval for release to start in January 2023 – if you are allocated to quarter one

The successful candidates will be representing their department and the Government Statistical Service (GSS). This means you will be expected to adhere to their professional standards and the Civil Service code of objectivity and impartiality.

Please send a short expression of interest (EOI) to the team at GSS.Careers@ons.gov.uk to apply. Your EOI should be no longer that one single side of A4 paper. It should explain 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 2023
  • April to June 2023
  • July to September 2023
  • October to December 2023

Every effort will be made to allocate you to your preferred period. But this cannot always be guaranteed.

We will carry out a selection exercise based on the roles, responsibilities and person specification criteria.

Deadline for applications

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 14 October 2022.

Blogs about the secondment experience

You can find out more about the secondment experience by reading the following blogs:

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