ONS Local Engagement Lead

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK's largest producer of official statistics, providing trusted data and analysis that helps inform decisions affecting people, communities and businesses across the country.

We are recruiting for two Grade 7 leadership roles within the ONS Local Engagement Service, part of the ONS Local Statistics and Analysis (OLSA) Division.

The ONS Local service supports users to access, analyse and understand government statistics and data to inform decisions at a local level. These roles offer a unique opportunity to influence how evidence and insight are used to support place-based decision making across the UK.

The ONS Local Statistics and Analysis (OLSA) division is a centre of excellence for local statistics, analysis and dissemination. The ONS Local service works closely with local, regional and national partners to understand evidence needs, identify data gaps, and ensure decision-makers have access to high-quality statistics, analysis and insight.

We are recruiting for the following roles:

Head of ONS Local Engagement: South England covering: South East (E12000008) & South West (E12000009)

Head of ONS Local Engagement: Devolved Nations covering: · Wales (W92000004), Northern Ireland (N92000002), Scotland (S92000003)

The successful candidate will become the senior ONS Local lead for their assigned geography, representing ONS externally, building strategic partnerships, and ensuring stakeholder needs are effectively understood, prioritised and delivered.

Greater devolution and the increasing demand for locally relevant evidence mean decision-makers across the UK need more local data and insight than ever before to support policy development and evidence-based decision making.

As a ONS Local Engagement Lead, you will provide strategic leadership across your assigned geography, leading ONS Local's engagement activity and ensuring users can access the data, analysis and expertise they need. You will be responsible for delivering and evolving the ONS Local offer within your area, developing services in response to stakeholder requirements, emerging priorities and identified evidence gaps.

Reporting to the Head of ONS Local Engagement Service, you will work closely with ONS Local leads across England and the Devolved Nations, helping to strengthen ONS's capability to meet the evolving needs of users across the UK. You will collaborate with analytical and development teams to ensure stakeholder priorities are translated into impactful statistical outputs, analysis and services.

This role requires exceptional stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, a strategic mindset and an understanding of analytical approaches. We are looking for someone who can develop and sustain influential networks, understand complex user requirements and work collaboratively with colleagues and partners to ensure data and evidence are effectively used to support decision-making.

You will have line management responsibility for a Senior Engagement Officer, and there may be further opportunity to matrix manage projects and colleagues across ONS Local and the wider ONS. As a member of the ONS Local leadership team, you will contribute to strategic priorities, foster a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration, and support the wider Social, Local and Census Statistics Directorate in delivering its objectives.

Stakeholders are likely to include local government leaders and analysts, mayoral strategic authorities, Welsh Government, Scottish Government, NISRA, MHCLG, other government departments, academics, local industry representatives and colleagues across ONS, particularly those working on subnational and regional statistics.

As a place-based leadership role, regular engagement with stakeholders across your assigned geography is essential. You will be expected to build strong local relationships through a combination of virtual and face-to-face engagement and travel regularly within your portfolio area to meet stakeholders and support local delivery activities.

For the South role, applicants should be ordinarily resident within the South East or South West and be willing to travel across both regions as required. For the Devolved Nations role, applicants should be ordinarily resident in Wales, Scotland

or Northern Ireland and be willing to travel across the devolved nations to support stakeholder engagement and partnership working. Travel undertaken for business purposes within your assigned geography will be reimbursed in accordance with ONS travel and expenses policies.

Where applicants choose to live outside their assigned area(s), additional travel costs from their home address will not normally be reimbursed.

Some of our offices are based within the areas listed for these roles, regular access to workstations within these offices (in addition to the expectation to travel to stakeholder-based locations) can be arranged. Offices within these areas include Titchfield (Fareham), Newport (Wales), Edinburgh and Belfast.

Occasional travel to other UK Statistics Authority sites and external venues may also be required.

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)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will 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.

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

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

• Stage 1: Application
• Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your CV and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

You will be required to provide a 5 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Communicating and influencing Behaviour.

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.

Our main locations are Newport (South Wales), Titchfield and Darlington, Manchester, London, Belfast

Candidates should note this is a multi-location campaign and therefore appointments and reserve lists will be made by location in merit order. A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates:

• The Sift will be conducted from 14th September
• Interviews will be conducted from 29th September

Dates are subject to change.

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

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