Senior Quantitative Analyst

Job summary

Do you want to make a tangible different to the lives of children across England? Can you use your skills to be a catalyst for creating meaningful change? Are you ready to join a committed team, dedicated to giving children and young people a voice on the issues affecting them?

The Children’s Commissioner wants to take children’s thoughts, opinions and ideas to decision makers, to ensure that the Government reflects children’s voices in the decisions that will affect them in years to come.

Joining the team is a chance to be involved in shaping children’s policy, making sure children’s voices are heard and being part of an exciting environment which puts children’s needs at the heart of everything we do.

Job description

Purpose of the job

As Senior Quantitative Analyst you will report to the Deputy Director of Research, and be responsible for leading quantitative analysis in line with the Commissioner’s priorities. You will work directly with the Children’s Commissioner, senior staff and policy colleagues to shape and represent the work of the office, identifying new opportunities to use the Commissioner’s unique powers of data collection to shed light on the issues affecting the wellbeing and welfare of children in England on devolved matters and other parts of the UK on reserved matters.

Key responsibilities

• Deliver policy-relevant insights through ethical, reproducible and quality assured quantitative analysis, modelling and data visualisation of administrative and survey datasets (using R).
• Quality assure analysis and outputs of other members of the research team.
• Work collaboratively as part of project teams, including research, policy, comms, Help at Hand, private office and corporate services colleagues and senior leadership. To take ownership of your outputs and lead projects independently and be responsible for delivery within time and budget.
• Communicate findings verbally and in writing to analytical and non-analytical colleagues, internal and external, extracting and clearly presenting and explaining key findings and any limitations, with an aim to maximise positive impact on policy and practice.
• In collaboration with qualitative research colleagues, the opportunity to participate in fieldwork visits and carry out interviews and focus groups with children and professionals.
• Use and develop knowledge, understanding and networks in one or more specific policy areas relevant to children.
• Use and develop knowledge of the existing statistical landscape to find innovative solutions to answer big questions and respond to requests for information quickly.
• Work with the Head of Social Research and Data Protection Officer where necessary to ensure data collection and management is undertaken in accordance with organisational policies and procedures.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues across the CCo, providing analytical support as appropriate to deliver the CCo’s Business Plan priorities. This may involve work on new data requests, using the Commissioner’s statutory data collection powers, to shed new light on the lives, experiences and outcomes of children, especially vulnerable children

Successful applicants will :

• Have a degree level or equivalent training in a quantitative discipline including advanced training in social research methods with a significant statistical or econometric component.
• Knowledge and understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methods, data protection and research ethics.
• Postgraduate training or equivalent in a quantitative social science and degree level or equivalent training in social research, with experience in applied research on children or families.

Person specification

Essential

• Ability to code in R, and to quality assure R code written by others.
• Experience of successfully using statistical data to inform and challenge.
• Experience of delivering research projects, taking ownership for delivering to time, and identifying and mitigating risks.
• Experience of research on or of working directly with children and young people including vulnerable groups.
• Proven ability to generate insight using primary data and secondary sources with the ability to pay close attention to detail in data analysis.
• Capacity to use innovative and digital methods of research.
• Good knowledge and competence with information systems and IT tools and software for the collection and management of data.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and good interpersonal and stakeholder management skills for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent project management, prioritisation and organisational skills.
• Flexible, motivated, solution focused, calm and effective under pressure.
• Committed to promoting children’s rights.

Desirable

• Experience of analysis of the National Pupil Database is highly desirable, and experience of analysing other UK government administrative datasets.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £46,971, Office of the Children's Commissioner contributes £13,607 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 27.97%. Benefits of the pension scheme - Civil Service Pension Scheme
• An Employee Assistance Programme.
• A comprehensive reward scheme.
• Generous holiday allowance starting at 25 days plus bank holidays and one privilege day.
• Flexible working options including full-time or part-time and hybrid working.
• A range of family friendly policies.
• Excellent learning and development opportunities.
• A culture encouraging inclusivity and diversity.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

CV

Please upload your personal CV which will be anonymised by our Application Tracking System. Our CV element is short and allows an initial check of eligibility, so please put the main content of your evidence and skills in your Personal Statement.

Personal Statement

Please set out how you meet the essential criteria in no more than 500 words and upload this to our Applicant Tracking System. Ensure you tell us why you want the role and provide examples of your experience to evidence how you meet each criteria.

Sifting

Applications will be sifted against the essential criteria. If we receive a large number of applications, we will conduct an initial sift based on the lead criteria. The strongest candidates will be invited to interview to provide more information about their experience and skills.

Please note: Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Interviews

• Candidates who are successful at the sifting stage will be invited for in person interviews
• Interviews are expected to take place during the week of the 9th of March.
• There may be a short task to prepare for the interview.
• Due to the large number of applications we receive, we will only provide feedback to people who attend an interview.

Reasonable adjustments

We value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage applications from everyone, especially those that are under-represented in our workforce. We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning difficulties, chronic medical conditions or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy or autism.

Please contact us at occ.recruitment@childrenscommissioner.gov.uk to let us know what changes or help you might need to further on in the recruitment process.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.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.

Diversity and Inclusion

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

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : OCC Recruitment Team
• Email : occ.recruitment@childrenscommissioner.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : occ.recruitment@childrenscommissioner.gov.uk

Attachments

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