Overcoming a Fear of Numbers: From Foe to Friend! | by Helen Portman

If you had told 15-year-old Helen that I would willingly, voluntarily, and enthusiastically be taking extra courses involving data, numbers, statistics, or anything of the sort, I would have told you that you definitely had the wrong person and that as soon as I had the required GCSE, I was never to going to look at another number, formula or equation again. Ever.

I’d always felt that maths “wasn’t for me”. As a child (and to be fair as an adult!) I could never remember my times tables despite weekly tests in class.  My Mum tried daily tests, a chart pinned above the kitchen table, and even, in an attempt to make learning fun, a times tables song tape for the car. None of it worked. Mental arithmetic was the same. I still need my fingers to count with if I don’t have a piece of paper handy - and don’t even get me started on long division!

Somewhere along the way, I missed some basic maths skills and as I hit secondary school these gaps began to show. The first few years I got away with it, mainly because my best friend was a certified maths genius! But by the time I got to GCSE year, it was clear I was lagging. The school had decided to try something new with maths and had split the intermediate classes into single-sex groups. For the first time, I had a teacher who understood that numbers didn’t always come easily to me, and I managed to plug some of the gaps and get a respectable B in my GCSE. As far as I was concerned that was it. Maths was over and good riddance!

Heading off to Uni to study stage management, maths wasn’t a key part of the course. moving first into the theatre, then education and then, via a role answering waste complaints I landed in social housing. Starting as a trainee housing officer, I managed around 500 homes, and it soon became clear that there weren’t enough hours in the day to get around every part of the estate, so I needed to work smarter and not harder! I started by looking at call volumes- which of my tenants was always calling in? Who never called in? Where were we getting lots of reports and where were we getting none? Data could play a role in telling me where I needed to focus my time and resources.

Moving into a management role looking after our adaptation and hoarding teams, data became even more important- were we on track? How was our budget doing? How many more referrals were we getting and, moving forward, how much money would we need as referral numbers and costs climbed?

At the same time, I was working on my Master’s in Housing, and again data, in particular qualitative data, started to play a bigger role in my time. I began to develop a real passion for housing data. Housing is such an important part of our lives. Good quality housing impacts our physical and mental health, education attainment, happiness, and well-being. Conversely, poor housing has a huge impact on individuals, families, and communities. A good quality, settled, safe home is priceless. However, as many of my fellow UK students know, we’re facing a housing crisis.

Demographic changes, rising prices, rent increases, mortgage increases, and a lack of social and affordable housing mean that we’re faced with having to do more with less. So how do we do that? Well, we have to look at the data- where are limited resources best spent? What kind of housing do we need and where? What does our changing demographic mean for housing?

I now work in local government as a policy officer and my role is primarily concerned with developing policies to help us meet the housing needs of our residents. I also analyse data from a huge range of sources to understand the housing ecosystem in the borough and undertake research to find out about areas where data is incomplete or unclear. Numbers and data have gone from mystery to grudging necessity to finally an exciting, untapped resource full of potential.

I don’t know why maths was always so scary, perhaps the pervading idea at the time that “maths was for boys” didn’t help. I felt confused, lost, and frustrated by numbers and I couldn’t see the relevance to my life. Perhaps you felt or still feel the same? If so I can only offer the following advice:      Numbers are your friend, data won’t bite and it will make your life easier. Never be afraid to google “what is the median” when you can’t remember your GCSE maths class and there’s no shame in needing your fingers to count on! And finally, a quote from mathematician Stan Gudder which I think really boils down the whole point of maths in day-to-day life:

“The essence of math is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.”

Helen Portman is a Data Fellowship apprentice at Multiverse based in the Northwest of England and is writing for the apprentice lens. Here’s more about her:
"Hello! Or as we like to say in this part of Lancashire “ey up love”. Based in a beautiful but rather chilly part of Lancashire right on the Yorkshire border, I work for the local government as a housing policy officer. At work, I’m passionate about coffee, decent gluten-free biscuits and the impact of housing on individuals, families, and communities. Outside of work, you’ll generally find me running in the local hills, hanging from an aerial hoop, playing DnD with a group of friends, or attempting DIY on a house that has not a single straight edge or right angle!
I hope to inspire fellow data and number sceptics to develop a love of data and to share my passion for housing with as many fellow students as possible."