Adult Social Care Senior Analyst

Social Care is a £20bn+ a year sector and an area for which the government has big ambitions. We have set out a 10-year vision for transforming the sector, which puts people at its heart and revolves around 3 objectives:

1. People have choice, control and support to live independent lives.
2. People can access outstanding quality and tailored care and support.
3. People find adult social care fair and accessible.

The Social Care Data & Analysis team plays a key role in this ambition.  We are designing and delivering the data transformation agenda that supports reform. In May, we published ‘Care Data Matters’ to set out our roadmap for better adult social care data.

We are a multi-professional analyst team, whose members include data scientists, economists, statisticians, and operational researchers.  We work in close partnership with our policy colleagues as well as with health and care arm’s length bodies, local government and stakeholders across the care sector.

We provide data/data science and statistical support for Ministers and Social Care Group across the whole range of Adult Social Care (ASC) policy and build the new social care evidence base.  We do this by managing all aspects of data collection for adult social care, from identifying key new data sources and building pipelines for data collection to producing meaningful analysis and data products, such as dashboards and publications, communicating findings and influencing policy development.

In DHSC, we are proud of our purpose – to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. To achieve this, and create a great place to work, we have four values: we are inclusive, we constantly improve, we challenge, and we are agile. Our team aim to be excellent analysts who focus on learning, development and capability-building, and foster individuals’ well-being in a diverse and inclusive team culture.

If this sounds like an environment you’d like to work in, we’d love to hear from you.

We are looking for SEO analysts to join the Adult Social Care Data and Analysis division. 

Analysts are key contributors to decision-making in our department, working in multi-disciplinary teams and in close collaboration with policy colleagues to provide direct support to ministers.

We work closely with policy colleagues in DHSC and with analysts in NHS England and in local government. 

You will use your professional skills, working closely with policy colleagues and stakeholders in government and in the care sector, to deliver the £12 million ASC data transformation programme set out in the consultation Care Data Matters.  This programme is a ministerial priority and forms a key plank of the ASC reform plans published in the White Paper – People at the Heart of Care.  

As part of recent advances in adult social care data we are building the first ever person-level data collections for adult care in England. You will help us harness the full benefits of these innovative collections by adding to our Data Science capability to exploit their potential, for example by using tools such as R and PowerBI for analysis and reporting and leading new work on data linkage and other data exploitation.

You will be able to apply your skills across a wide range of projects.  These include developing and evaluating more effective prevention strategies across a care pathway or developing new metrics and publications, and updating existing ones, to improve how we report outcomes for social care.  Other projects include building an understanding of population needs and resource utilisation now and in the future, to inform strategic planning and commissioning across health and social care and public health.

Role Responsibilities 

We have a number of opportunities available in our Client Level Data programme and ASC Data and Analysis teams.  All these posts offer you the ability to develop your own skills as an analyst and to stretch your leadership skills by taking ownership of one or more workstreams and taking responsibility for your own work. You will work with analyst, policy and delivery colleagues in Social Care Group and with stakeholders and analysts in NHS England, UKHSA and local authorities. 

Successful applicants will have career-building opportunities to contribute to flagship data projects in adult social care, such as

• Lead a workstream to design and build a new dashboard to share data with local authorities and other external stakeholders
• Develop, quality assure and publish new metrics for measuring adult social care activity and finance, working in close collaboration with NHS England analysts
• Develop and improve data collections from adult social care providers to exploit the potential offered by sector digitisation, and build dashboards and other dissemination tools for publishing data to the sector and more widely
• Lead analyst input on longer-term planning, commissioning, finance and project management for priority ASC data projects to deliver the aims of the adult social care data strategy

To do this well, you will be able to work with

• Local authority data owners and other stakeholders to surface and solve issues.
• Policy colleagues to identify and prioritise policy needs and develop effective data-led solutions and outputs to meet these needs.
• Technical teams and other stakeholders in DHSC and NHSE England to develop, coordinate and embed processes to implement data quality improvements and ensure compliance with quality standards

Key skills and experience required for the role

Essential criteria

• Strong analytical skills, such as experience of delivering high-value analytical projects
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, such as being able to communicate complex issues simply and in a way that is tailored for different audiences.
• Confidence when working with other professions including policy and the ability quickly to build good working relationships with people at all levels.
• Good project-management and time-management skills, including the ability to multi-task across more than one project running concurrently
• Badged in one of the government analytical professions – GES, GSG, GORS or GSR (please specify which profession you are badged in) OR can show evidence of meeting the eligibility requirements of one of the following analytical bodies at S-level – Government Economic Service (GES), Government Statistical Group (GSG), Government Operational Research (GORS), or Government Social Research (GSR). See link to professions’ eligibility requirements here: Government Analysis Function – The Government Analysis Function is a network for all civil servants working in government analysis. (civilservice.gov.uk)

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of coding, ideally in R
• Experience of quality assuring data and evidence for use by a team or organisation.
• Experience of cross-organisational working.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Use and application of professional analytical and data skills to real issues or problems
• Communicating analysis with impact.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Job contact :

• Name : Jenny Neuburger
• Email : Jenny.neuburger@dhsc.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : dhscrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk