A HM Revenue and Customs neurodiversity initiative which has “set a precedent for inclusivity practices across the civil service” is among the winners of this year’s Analysis in Government Awards.
HMRC’s national neurodiversity network project team has won the Inclusion Award for its large-scale survey exploring the experiences of neurodivergent employees.
The award recognises an outstanding contribution in making the analysis function more inclusive and more representative of the citizens it serves, or an outstanding contribution in producing analysis on diversity or inclusion.
The “Make Working at HMRC Work for Everyone” survey, which aimed to address negative workplace experiences of neurodivergent employees, led to actionable insights and cost-effective interventions that are being reviewed by HMRC’s Executive Committee and HR department, the government’s analysis function said.
It said the work has not only benefited staff in HMRC, however. Following its success, the project team has been contacted by other government departments to share its knowledge on designing and delivering robust social research with neurodivergent colleagues.
“This work not only benefits colleagues in HMRC, but also sets a precedent for inclusivity practices across the civil service,” the analysis function said.
Judges said the project was a “fantastic example of driving forward new analysis to improve the department’s understanding of the barriers faced by neurodiverse colleagues, and thereby enabling change to happen”.
They said the survey provided “important evidence to drive inclusion in a poorly (often misunderstood) area of diversity” and that there is a “huge amount of read across for the wider civil service in terms of the evidence base, but also the policy changes/adaptions put in place as a result”.
A Department for Work and Pensions team that transformed the evidence base for contracted employment supported programmes was another winner. The team demonstrated that these programmes have significant impact by helping tens of thousands of people enter and remain in employment for many years – and calculated that, at a cost of around £0.5bn per year, the interventions “more than pay for themselves”.
The team used this evidence, alongside qualitative research, to influence the design and procurement of major new programmes including Restart and Universal Support. They also presented the evidence to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which scored the employment impacts – the first time ever for a labour-market programme. The analysis function said this has influenced evaluation and policymaking across more DWP teams – “a brilliant demonstration of driving ‘the policy cycle’ to develop evidence-based policies that improve the lives via complex and innovative analysis”.
The judges said the project was “strong on collaboration and innovation and use of evaluation” and delivered “clear outcomes including influencing policy and convincing the OBR”.
They said the team has influenced significant amounts of spend and the design of several of DWP’s work programmes, calling this “impressive stuff”.
They added: “Excellent impact demonstrated so far in a tricky policy area with longstanding evidence gaps… the potential longer-term impact for this project is huge.”
Ofsted’s Early Years Data and Analysis Team has, meanwhile, won another award for its “Childcare Deserts and Oases” project, which quantified neighbourhood-level childcare accessibility.
The team, which won the Evaluation and Analysis Award at the 2024 Civil Service Awards in December, has won the analysis function’s Collaboration Award for the same project.
Judges praised the project’s “outstanding international collaboration” across government departments, industry and academia, its use of novel methods and techniques, and the “impressive results”.
The analysis function said the new metrics are feeding into No.10’s delivery dashboards and informing the Department for Education’s evaluation of its £14bn investment in expanded childcare.
Here is the full list of winners and runners up:
Collaboration Award
Winner: Early Years Data and Analysis Team, Ofsted. Nominated work: “Childcare Deserts and Oases”
Runner-up: "Access to Green Space in England" team, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Highly commended:
- GSS Vision Metrics Group, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Student Finance Modelling Unit, Department for Education
Communication Award
Joint winners:
- Programme for Government Wellbeing Framework Development Team, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
- Explore Subnational Statistics Team, Office for National Statistics
Runner-up: StatsAID team, Department of Transport
Highly commended: Fingertips Webinars Team
Impact award
Winner: Contracted Employment Analysis Team, Department for Work and Pensions
Runner-up: Employment Rights Analysis Team, Department for Business and Trade
Highly commended:
- Living England Team, Natural England
- Maritime Analysis Team, Department for Transport
Inclusion Award
Winner: National Neurodiversity Network Project Team, HM Revenue and Customs
Runner-up: Black Analyst Forum, cross-government
Highly commended: Charlotte Bateson, Hayley Forrest, Hannah Willmett, Trudy Hill, Helen Banks, Esme Hookway, Courtney Cox, Emily Knipe, Chloe Stone and Tansy Arthur (ONS Veterans Analysis Team and Adhoc Surveys Team).
Innovative Methods Award
Winner: Discovery analytics team, Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory
Runner-up: Risk & Intelligence Service Preventive Risking – Fraud DNA Team, HMRC
Highly commended: Data Science Unit, Welsh Government
The Professor Sir Ian Diamond Rising Star Award
Winner: Rebecca Vincent, Ofsted