Economics at ONS: Increasing Openness, Improving Capability

Informed by the Spending Review outcome and by Sir Charles Bean’s interim report, ONS is today publishing Increasing Openness, Improving Capability. This document sets out ONS’s strategic intent to meet increasing demands for economic statistics and to keep pace with the rapidly changing nature of the economy.

To attain these goals, we need to improve our economic capability. In part, we will achieve this by increased recruitment to take us towards an economist complement at a multiple of current levels. But we will also achieve it by substantially enhanced partnership working with outside academic and other experts. At the same time, ONS recognises its obligation to support the research community where it is able to do so. Greater partnership working with the research community will give us better two way communication so that this can be done more effectively.

Achieving our strategic objectives in full will take time. But to help drive us forward on this journey, some of the specific initiatives within the report have already been, or are in the process of being, implemented.

ONS Fellowships

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is transforming itself into a modern, data-driven organisation capable and equipped to give the UK the statistics it needs. This will involve radical change.

To support this, ONS is looking to recruit recognised experts to fill three ONS Fellowships to help develop and deliver key economic statistics.

These Fellowships will constitute call-off contracts for 30 to 70 days per annum for academic or private sector economists to join our team and contribute to making and delivering national statistics.

We consider these to be exciting roles, presenting opportunities to innovate, make a difference and support the delivery of a new generation of world class economic statistics, changing what is considered possible in economic statistics.

This contract is likely to start in February 2016 and will conclude by February 2017. Fellows need to undertake to work closely with ONS staff, which would mean spending a reasonable amount of time in Newport or Titchfield. But otherwise, there would be no restriction on where they were based. ONS is an Equal Opportunities Employer.

ONS is the UK’s national statistical institute and largest producer of official statistics, with responsibility for collecting, compiling, analysing and disseminating a range of key economic, social and demographic statistics about the UK. These are used by policy makers across government to create evidence-based policies and monitor performance against them.