Operational research may not be the best-known profession inside the civil service, but its head Tony O’Connor says that this cadre of analysts creates many benefits for policymaking.
Operational research (OR) is not one of the civil service’s most famous professions, but it has strong historical foundations. OR – or management science, as it’s also called – first emerged as a discipline inside government during the Second World War, when – in the words of the head of profession Tony O’Connor – “some boffins were locked away in a room” to apply mathematical models to military planning. Asked to define the profession simply, O’Connor says OR is “about applying analytical techniques – both scientific and mathematical – to solving problems”.
The roughly 440 operational researchers apply their analytical know-how to assessing the effectiveness of government policies, ultimately helping to design better policies. O’Connor says the bulk of operational researchers work in those departments with the biggest service delivery arms: work & pensions (DWP), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Home Office, and the health and schools departments.
He himself is senior analytical strategist at the Department of Health, and the majority of OR staff – but, he’s keen to point out, not all of them – work close to policymakers at the centre of government. “The majority are in Whitehall,” says O’Connor. “But we have people working with the UK Border Agency in Croydon; in Leeds with DWP and health; in Manchester and Telford with HMRC; and in Newport with the Office for National Statistics (ONS).”
Reflecting this range of locations, there’s also some diversity in OR practitioners’ backgrounds. O’Connor says OR people can come into government from a variety of academic disciplines. “Ideally, they’d have an MSc in OR, but we also bring in first graduates from any numerate or scientific discipline. We like to promote the idea that you can come from many different backgrounds, but then apply your scientific approach to solve these problems.”
As with the other analytical cadres in the civil service, the Government Operational Research Service (GORS) is a discrete profession, with its own entry point and career path – both for graduates and more experienced researchers. So how do pay and opportunities bear up against comparable jobs in the private sector? At the moment the civil service is pretty competitive, O’Connor says, but he adds candidly: “That’s probably a comment on the job market, and not our pay.” But it’s also a profession that people develop within before moving on from, he explains.
GORS recruits between 50 and 70 graduates a year; given the aforementioned size of the profession, the maths suggests that a significant proportion leave the profession annually. Many become policymaking civil servants, O’Connor explains, and others take their OR skills to different parts of the public and private sectors.
O’Connor is also frank when asked about crossover between the work of OR researchers and management consultants contracted by departments. “I think there is certainly a case for some of the work that’s done by outside consultancies to be done by internal people – if they had the capacity,” he says. “I think that’s true with a number of areas inside government; we employ [external] people to do analysis that could be done in-house if we had greater flexibility.”
Building that flexibility will, in part, rest on the development of the heads of analysis group: a forum in which the leaders of the analytical professions, including O’Connor, can discuss common goals in building analytical skills and promoting the cause of analysis in policymaking. It’s a mechanism that’s been highlighted by the other participants who’ve featured in these pages: Vicky Pryce of the Government Economic Service; Jill Matheson of the statistical service; and Paul Wiles of the social research service.
“We look centrally at what issues are affecting the analytical community, and make sure that resources are used in the most appropriate way,” O’Connor says. “We also look at cross-cutting issues, so it’s the fiscal situation that’s the biggest priority at the minute. Where can the analysts help to identify where we can get more for less? Where can we identify particular policies or implementation activities we want to stop doing?”
Though he’s enthusiastic about working alongside other analysts, O’Connor acknowledges that operational researchers – and OR in general – don’t enjoy the profile of economists or statisticians. “That’s been a classic problem for the profession, because we are quite often seen as bringing a multidisciplinary approach. People see an economist and they think: ‘I know what that is’. Whereas we sometimes have to sell ourselves after the event: people like what we’ve done and then I explain: ‘Did you know that was operational research?’”