My name is Kelly Hewitt and I joined the Driver and Vehicle Services Agency in 2005. I studied a Business Decision Analysis degree at the University of the West of England and graduated in 2001. I have held a few roles within DVSA and I am now the Data Science Manager who leads a team of Data Scientists and Data Analysis.
This role participates in and oversees the provision of data science services for DVSA. This includes the continued development of demand forecasting models to determine the likely demand for DVSA services going forward, the development of predictive models to forecast performance against key agency targets and the development of risk models to enable a more efficient use of frontline resources
A typical data involves meeting with stakeholders to discuss their data science requirements, extracting data to build data models using various tools and presenting the data back to the business to inform decision making.
Since COVID 19 I along with my team are modelling the impact of suspending DVSA services and are currently modelling scencarios to enable to the business to make key decision so that we can restart our services and understand the impact on our performance targets an customers.
I have worked in the private sector before joining DVSA but I can say now that I will be staying in the civil service for the rest of my career. There are a variety of different roles available across the departments so you can develop your career accordingly. I love the flexibility of working but most importantly I love the fact I’m doing a job where I feel I can make a difference to road safety.
I have a relatively young team in that its current members have been in their roles for under a year. Learning and Development is encouraged. I currently have a team member on a Data Science Apprenticeship course to gain a Masters qualification. Others have had training using R/Python whilst I am currently pursuing courses to enable me to acquire the skills to achieve promotion to senior management.