About the job

Job summary

The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. Analysts play a key role in providing high quality evidence to support policy making and the Welsh Government more broadly. 

The Social Research and Information Division is a core part of the government’s analytical function. The division comprises around 70 social researchers who work closely with policy and other analysts (e.g. statisticians, economists) to provide analytical advice and evidence to support key policy decisions in devolved areas such as education, health and the environment. There is one post available in the Social Research and Information Division.

Government analysts are also based within policy divisions, including the Equality, Poverty, Children’s Evidence and Support Division – there are two posts available in this Division.

The Welsh Government’s Equality, Race and Disability Evidence Units, based in the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division have been recently established. There are three units: the Equality Evidence Unit, the Race Disparity Evidence Unit and the Disability Disparity Evidence Unit. The work of the Units will include investigating long-standing problems underpinned by sufficiently robust statistics and research across the Welsh Government and the wider public sector in Wales; improving the collection of data; and delivering innovative ways to address ongoing evidence needs relating to equalities and socio-economic disadvantage. Unit staff are a mixture of analysts (including social researchers and statisticians) and policy officials.

Social researchers in Equality, Poverty, Children’s Evidence and Support Division also support the research needs of policy areas including social justice, children, childcare and families.

These posts are open to undergraduate students on a sandwich year placement between their second and third year of study. Welsh Government are looking for applications from diverse candidates who can demonstrate leadership qualities and bring fresh skills, lived experiences and perspectives to our work.

Welsh Government are committed to being an anti-racist organisation, and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are under-represented in the Civil Service in Wales. Welsh Government committed to supporting all staff to thrive in an inclusive working environment.  

Job description

The Welsh Government is the devolved government of Wales. Analysts play a key role in providing high quality evidence to support policy making and the Welsh Government more broadly. 

The Social Research and Information Division is a core part of the government’s analytical function. The division comprises around 70 social researchers who work closely with policy and other analysts (e.g. statisticians, economists) to provide analytical advice and evidence to support key policy decisions in devolved areas such as education, health and the environment. There is one post available in the Social Research and Information Division.

Government analysts are also based within policy divisions, including the Equality, Poverty, Children’s Evidence and Support Division – there are two posts available in this Division.

The Welsh Government’s Equality, Race and Disability Evidence Units, based in the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division have been recently established. There are three units: the Equality Evidence Unit, the Race Disparity Evidence Unit and the Disability Disparity Evidence Unit. The work of the Units will include investigating long-standing problems underpinned by sufficiently robust statistics and research across the Welsh Government and the wider public sector in Wales; improving the collection of data; and delivering innovative ways to address ongoing evidence needs relating to equalities and socio-economic disadvantage. Unit staff are a mixture of analysts (including social researchers and statisticians) and policy officials.

Social researchers in Equality, Poverty, Children’s Evidence and Support Division also support the research needs of policy areas including social justice, children, childcare and families.

These posts are open to undergraduate students on a sandwich year placement between their second and third year of study. Welsh Government are looking for applications from diverse candidates who can demonstrate leadership qualities and bring fresh skills, lived experiences and perspectives to our work.

Welsh Government are committed to being an anti-racist organisation, and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are under-represented in the Civil Service in Wales. Welsh Government committed to supporting all staff to thrive in an inclusive working environment.  

The successful candidates will be based either in the Social Research and Information Division or the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support division, working closely with social researchers to support the development and delivery of different types of research projects. The responsibilities of the successful candidates will vary depending on the team; and the exact posts will be dependent on the interests, skills and experiences of the successful candidates. There are three posts available, one is based in the Social Research and Information Division and two are based in the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division. Our aim is to fill posts in the following teams:

1. Post one: in the Housing Research Branch within the Social Research and Information Division

This role will be based within the housing research team but will involve working closely with researchers on a wide range of topic areas across the climate change and rural affairs directorate policy areas, including housing, the environment and rural affairs. The role holder will also spend part of their time supporting researchers in schools research and education and skills research teams. The role will involve assisting with the design, delivery, analysis and reporting of primary and secondary research. Likely tasks include conducting evidence reviews, developing and administering small-scale online surveys, and assisting with qualitative research. There will also be an opportunity to assist with corporate responsibilities, such as providing administrative support for the Welsh Government’s Government Social Research Committee.

2. Post two: in the Equality Evidence Unit within the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division

This role will involve working closely with researchers and statisticians on cross cutting equality, ethnicity and disability evidence across a range of topic areas. This includes providing research support to the multi-disciplinary team of researchers, statisticians and policy officials. The role will involve working closely with colleagues to support in drafting evidence reviews, quality assurance of research reports and analytical outputs and providing general administrative support to the equality, race and disability evidence units.

 3. Post three: in the Children, Families and Childcare Research Team within the Equality, Poverty, Children Evidence & Support Division

This post will be based in Children, Families and Childcare Research team and will work closely with researchers in this team to support the design, delivery, analysis and reporting of primary and secondary research. The role holder will also have the chance to work with researchers in other areas of the Equality, Poverty and Children’s Evidence Unit to including the Social Justice Research team to support the overall programme of work.

Person specification

The key tasks of the successful applicants will depend on which team they are placed with, but will include a combination of the following:

• Supporting with the management and quality assurance of research
• Assisting with research projects which use qualitative (e.g. in-depth interviews, focus groups – in line with the social model of disability) and quantitative methods (e.g. survey work, statistical analysis,  monitoring and reporting information) 
• Research design, analysis and synthesis
• Undertaking literature searches and reviews
• Liaising with analysts across the Welsh Government
• Providing administrative support for data collection exercises
• Preparing reports for publication on the Welsh Government’s social research webpages or for use internally
• Project management
• Administrative tasks, such as organising meetings, seminars and events, taking minutes and record keeping.
• Work with the analysts in the team to uphold GSR and GSS standards (such as ethical compliance) alongside relevant legal requirements (such as UK GDPR compliance) across all projects
• Coordinate stakeholder engagement meetings between senior members of the team and other relevant partners within Welsh Government
• Meet with senior analysts in the team on a regular basis to update on progress with tasks responsible for.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £26,901, Welsh Government contributes £6,279 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Confirmation that the successful applicant has passed their second year of study will be required before the placement can start.

The placements will run from summer 2024 – summer 2025.

As part of the application process, you will need to complete an application form against each of the required behaviours and technical criteria stated in this advert (up to a maximum of 300 words for each):

• Changing and Improving (Assessed via application form)
• Making Effective Decisions (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Working Together (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Delivering at Pace (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Technical 1 (Assessed via application form and a pre-prepared presentation at online interview)
• Technical 2 (Assessed via application form and online interview)
• Technical 3 (Assessed via application form and online interview)

As a guide, we recommend that you use the behaviours and technical criteria as headings and aim to write 250 to 300 words each. Max word limit 2000 words. Using the “STAR technique” may help you to structure your evidence – information is provided in the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates pack. Please include how you considered your own or others’ lived experiences where relevant within the evidence provided.

For technical 1, please set out your understanding of how social research can inform decisions in government including consideration of equality and diversity issues.  For technical 2, please set out your degree course title, the type(s) of computer packages you are experienced in and include examples of the analysis and statistical tests you have undertaken using them.

This advertisement confirms the overall criteria being assessed throughout this recruitment exercise. For further details on the criteria and evidence required at the application stage, you will need to press apply and review the application form. For more information on Civil Service Behaviours and what is required for each grade, please refer to Success Profiles: Civil Service Behaviours.

When presenting your evidence, you may find it useful to consider the expectations of the grade as set out in the Grade Description as well as the main responsibilities that are essential for the role.

Candidates successful at sifting stage will be invited to an online interview. A maximum of 12 candidates will progress to interview. Applicants invited to interview will need to have achieved a score of 4 or above for Technical 1, Technical 2, Technical 3 and the Behaviour Delivering at Pace.

The online interview will take place over Microsoft Teams and will include a presentation and interview questions. The interview will be using various assessment techniques aligned to the Civil Service Success Profiles framework. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. Situational style questions (what would you do if… ?) and past style questions experience (can you give me an example of time when…?) will be used to assess the specified civil service behaviours. In addition, you will also be asked technical questions relevant to the role. Candidates will receive the main interview questions 3 working days in advance of the interview date.

We do not accept the use of presentation software to support the presentation, cue cards or prompts are permitted. Presentations will be 5 minutes in length.

Successful candidates will be skill matched into roles upon completion of interviews.

Performance on technical 3 will be used to determine merit order when candidates score the same, followed by performance on technical 1.

Want to find out more?

To help explain the application process and answer any questions you may have about our placement positions, we will be hosting a MS Teams webinar on the following dates:

Thursday 13th February 2024 at 11:00-12:00.

The Welsh Government will be holding a Webinar which can be booked by emailing socialresearch.recruitment@gov.wales. Once you have booked on to the webinar by emailing socialresearch.recruitment@gov.wales you will receive an email response with a link to a Teams meeting for the information webinar.

Please notify us of any adjustments you might need in advance of the webinar. This could include British Sign Language, use of transcription or open caption during the event, or presentation slides sent before the webinar – Aimee Marks socialresearch.recruitment@gov.wales.

Please read the privacy notice which tells you how we use the information you provide to us for the purpose of signing up to the information webinar.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.