ONS Local Lead for the Yorkshire / North of England regions

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution, and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime, and migration.
We are looking for an ONS Local Lead who will be responsible for the Yorkshire/North of England geographic area. ONS Local has been established by the ONS to work alongside the Sub-national Statistics and Analysis (SSA) division in response to the Levelling Up White Paper in Spring 2022 and the increased focus on the need for timely and granular sub-national statistics. ONS Local provides support and advice to analysts in local government and its service aims to promote evidence-based decision making across local government.
This role offers an opportunity to work across a range of cross-cutting themes including the economy, the labour market and society, as well as working directly with local leaders to strengthen two-way understanding and use of the evidence landscape. You will be a key part of their local data and analytical networks with the aim of interpreting the key issues for regional stakeholders.
Reporting to the Joint Heads of ONS Local, you will be accountable for the effective leadership of multidisciplinary and matrix-managed analytical teams focussing on the needs of stakeholders in Yorkshire/North of England. You will have line management responsibility for 2 Senior Executive Officers and 1 Higher Executive Officer and matrix management of staff across the ONS Local teams and the wider ONS working on specific analytical projects. You will be part of a team of Regional Leads in England and Devolved Liaison Officers in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, working alongside a flexible pool of analysts to support cross-cutting projects.
This work is based in Yorkshire/North of England regions and requires you to be able to travel regularly to locations within this area, usually once a week. This will enable you to regularly meet stakeholders in person as well as providing regional/local ‘in the field’ support as and when needed to progress the work of the team. Please note that some travel to other ONS sites may also occasionally be required. It should be noted that these are specific requirements relevant to this role that are unlikely to be replicated in other ONS roles., ONS Local is a rapidly evolving service which was designed and rolled out by ONS, across the UK, to provide more statistical support to local leaders to maximise opportunities for using data and evidence to support decisions and progress against high profile and cross-government policies. As a Regional Lead, you will be part of a leadership team within the ONS Local division, which is part of the Economic, Social and Environmental statistics Group (ESEG) within the ONS. You will be vital in the delivery of ONS Local services in their dedicated region and support the work of the wider division. You will work closely with others within ONS Local and Sub-national Statistics and Analysis, local partners, and teams across ONS to design and deliver analytical advice, support, and projects that contribute to regional and national priorities as set out in the GSS subnational data strategy., As the main contact for local partners in your region, you will act as an ONS representative, engaging with senior stakeholders from a range of local and subnational bodies in the Yorkshire/North of England regions and across the whole of the UK. Your role will be to develop a deep expert understanding of the policy issues within your region (and more widely across the UK), the sub-national data landscape across government, and locally, to support these priorities, and knowledge of key data gaps.
You will work alongside regional leads and local partners to co-design and deliver analytical projects, respond to data-related queries and assist external networks, that will help inform decision making both locally and centrally. You will lead work to identify the role that ONS Local can play in addressing user needs is a key component of stakeholder engagement. You will work as a lead for ONS Local on a particular topic area (such as productivity or beyond GDP). This involves keeping abreast of activity across ONS in this topic and help build a picture of user interests in the topic across the UK. Therefore a knowledge and interest in economic and public policy analysis is desirable, as it will be essential to develop a good understanding and knowledge of the topics and themes which you will be working on.
Responsibilities
Your key responsibilities are to:
+ Gain insight from a wide range of external local stakeholders, through stakeholder engagement, to feed into prioritisation of work and help direct maximum impact projects.
+ Engage with a wide range of stakeholders internally and across government to understand user needs, manage expectations, deliver quality products and seek to continually improve our offer.
+ Work collaboratively and flexibly across ONS, with topic experts, survey designers, field force and data experts to seek new opportunities to add value and provide a coherent service to our users.
+ Lead and work within multi-disciplinary analytical teams or provide analytical oversight and set direction for the team.
+ Ensure the right data collection and analytical methods are used, and that quality assurance, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement are carried out appropriately.
+ Communicate analysis, outputs and insights effectively, both in written publications and in meetings with key stakeholders, ensuring that key messages are understood, and add value to public debate and policy making.
+ Contribute to promote a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement.
+ Management of a small team covering the Yorkshire and the North of England regions
+ Chair team meetings and regular stand-ups
+ Monitoring progress and ensure that documentation is updated appropriately., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
+ Working Together
+ Leadership
+ Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
+ Experience of leading data analysis, research and/or publications, ensuring that outputs are timely, accurate, relevant, accessible and coherent., At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a member of the Business Disability Forum and a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
ONS are committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies., A lack of UK residency in itself is not always a bar to security clearance but the Department will need to consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
+ Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
+ UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
+ Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
+ Security Services records
Applicants may utilise AI resources in their submissions; ensuring all information provided is factually accurate, truthful, and original, avoiding any form of plagiarism to maintain the authenticity and credibility of the application process.
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Assessment at application stage will be based on your online CV work history and your personal statement. Please tailor the application to show your skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to the content of the role.
Your personal statement should be a maximum 1250 words. You should this space FULLY to provide evidence for each essential criterion within the person specification.
As the criteria are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions and set them out using the STAR acronym (Situation, Task, Action, Result). Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage.
In cases where there is a high number of applications the sift pass mark may be adjusted and candidates will be invited to interview in merit order, i.e., those scoring the highest.
Should you be invited to interview you will be assessed against all the behaviours and technical skills outlined in this advert.
As part of the technical skills assessment a presentation may be required at interview. Further information will be provided to shortlisted candidates prior to interview.
Interviews will be held via video conferencing.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates
Advert closing date: Monday 25th November
Application sift from: Wednesday 27th November
Interviews from: Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th December
Dates are subject to change
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment below.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

The role requires you to have excellent analytical leadership skills; a record of delivering high quality analytical outputs; and change and project management skills to prioritise and deliver against our priorities. Ideally but not essentially, you may have an analytical background in one or more of Statistics, Economics, Social Research, Operational Research, Data Science – and the ability to work with analysts and non-analysts., + Experience of engaging with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders to deliver impactful, high-quality outcomes.
+ Strong communication skills with the ability to communicate analysis, outputs and insights effectively using a range of methods and formats to different audiences.
+ Demonstrative leadership skills with experience of leading a team or unit to set direction promoting learning, growth, diversity and inclusion across staff.
+ Experience of working collaboratively and flexibly with a variety of stakeholders to provide a coherent service to users.

The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our 5400 valued colleagues across the business.

Alongside your salary of £56,020, Office for National Statistics contributes £16,228 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.