Senior Statistical Officer in Manchester

The Cabinet Office sits at the heart of government. We support the Prime Minister and ensure the effective running of government, and we are home to a diverse array of business units, professions, and central functions. Sitting in the Cabinet Office, the Government People Group (GPG) exists to work with departments, professions, and functions to build a modern, effective Civil Service. We support the government workforce with the right skills and capability.

Within the GPG, Government Skills was set up in 2020 to drive up capability across Government in an evidence-based and impact-led way. Government Skills ensures all civil servants, from entry to most senior leadership, have the core and specialist knowledge, skills and networks they need to deliver great public services and address complex systemic challenges, now and in the future. This work is central to the Public Sector Reform and Efficiency policy area, and supports Mission Delivery by ensuring the workforce has the capability and learning culture to deliver against the Government’s missions.

The Evidence and Impact team within Government Skills is responsible for ensuring that hundreds of millions of pounds of annual spend on developing the skills, knowledge and relationships of the Government workforce is evidence-based and impact-led. We use a combination of analytical methods covering monitoring/data analytics, social research, evaluation, statistics, behavioural and user research, and economic analysis to provide robust, purposeful insights to inform business decisions.

As Senior Statistical Officer you will lead statistical analysis for Government Skills to understand the relationship between workforce skills, capability-building investments and critical outcomes including Civil Service and people performance, and mission delivery across government and the wider public sector. You will be a key collaborator in the development and implementation of the Government Skills Data Strategy.

Key responsibilities include:

• Developing data sharing agreements with Government Departments and facilitating the integration and linkage of complex data sets to allow you and others to conduct effective analysis and statistically robust research/evaluation.
• Embedding best practices for data quality and management across the directorate as we shape and refine our data strategy on sound statistical principles.
• Supporting impact and economic evaluations; producing modelling to guide development of the directorate-wide future operating model, and ensuring the analytical capability of several significant projects.
• Working closely with the senior leadership team within Evidence and Impact and contributing to the development, maturity and positive culture of the E&I team and the wider Government Skills Directorate.

Support the development and implementation of a directorate-wide data strategy, taking lead responsibility for agreed areas of the strategy. Lead on statistical analysis across the directorate, supporting an evidence-based, impact-led approach to developing the capability of the government and public sector workforce.

Ensure that all statistical analysis is high quality, ethical and aligned with relevant frameworks, including the Government Campus Evaluation Strategy and other relevant guidance.

Promote innovation in statistical methods through applying your existing knowledge and skills, and proactively upskilling yourself, for example, on ethical and robust use of AI within statistical analysis.

Contribute to the effective development of the Evidence and Impact Team by leading on at least one cross-cutting work area, for example, building capacity in statistical analysis across the team.