Celebrating star analysts

The Analysis Function’s Emma Lake is part of the planning team for the second Analysis in Government Awards. Emma took some time out of her busy schedule to give us an overview of these exciting awards and draws comparisons with one of her favourite shows, the Great British Bake Off (GBBO):

In our house the GBBO, as well as being a sign of the changing seasons, brings my family together to watch and inspires us to bake new things. The show always involves a diverse group of passionate bakers with varying experience who are faced with a range of challenges to test their baking skills.

It’s a huge success to get selected for the show and great fun to watch the contestants compete to achieve the weekly star baker award and ultimately try to predict who will be the winner of GBBO. The technical challenge is always tricky and involves bakers being provided with limited instructions to bake a specific product. The challenge requires bakers to be innovative, using their existing knowledge and skills to produce a final product which is then judged against a range of criteria.

This technical challenge draws immediate comparisons for me with the challenges faced by analysts, especially when asked to generate and share analysis which will help inform decision making and monitor the delivery of the government’s priorities.

Personally, I have learnt a lot from GBBO including the impact of under-proving and how to avoid a soggy bottom! I see the Analysis in Government awards as a fantastic opportunity to inspire others across the Analysis Function community; sharing the learning from technical challenges, coming together and celebrating showstoppers and to elevate the signature work of analysts across our diverse and talented community.

That said, one difference with the Analysis in Government awards is you can influence the selection process. Our challenge for you is to consider all the showstoppers and signature work across analytical professions and to submit nominations for one of the six award categories.

Who do you think has the right ingredients? Who should be celebrated as star analysts and to ultimately become celebrities in the analytical world?

Nominations for the six separate awards: Collaboration, Innovative Methods, Communication, Impact, Inclusion and The Sir Ian Diamond excellence award, can be submitted between 4 October and 12 November 2021. You can find out more about each category including some tips on how to write a winning entry on our Analysis Government Awards 2021 launch article.

It’s easy to nominate a team or individual for one of the awards so submit your Analysis in Government Awards nomination now and join us in December 2021 for the awards ceremony to see who will be crowned each award.

Keep up to date with all the latest news and information by following @gov_analysis on Twitter, email to subscribe to our exclusive monthly Newsletter at Analysis.Function@ons.gov.uk and check out the latest news, and booking information on the AF GOV.UK web pages.

Please do take the opportunity to get nominate colleagues across the community which will help to inspire our aspiring analysts and to build the capability of the Analysis Function.