Associate Director, Workforce Transformation Psychological Professions

Health-Education-and-Improvement-Wales

Cardiff

Hybrid

GBP 65,000 - 93,000

Part time

3 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Part time

Job summary

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is seeking an Associate Director for Psychological Professions to provide strategic leadership for the education and training of the workforce delivering psychological therapies in Wales.

You will shape national workforce frameworks, translate policies into actionable programmes, and work with senior partners across NHS Wales to drive innovation and improve health outcomes for citizens.

Qualifications

Experience in senior leadership within psychological professions or health workforce transformation.
Evidence of influencing national workforce strategies and education programmes.
Strong understanding of NHS Wales policy and change management.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership for education and training workforce development.
Lead on engagement with stakeholders across Wales and the UK.
Translate policy into actionable workforce transformation initiatives.
Deliver measurable outcomes and workforce improvements across services.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Budget management

NHS Wales knowledge

Education

Master's degree

PhD or Doctorate

Job description

Main area Psychological Professions Grade Band 8c Contract Permanent Hours

Part time
Flexible working

6 sessions per week (An agile working model to allow flexibility between home and office-based working.) Job ref 082-PST002-0526-A

Employer Health Education and Improvement Wales Employer type NHS Site Ty Dysgu, Town Cardiff Salary £80,698 - £92,984 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 01/09/2026 23:59 Interview date 17/09/2026

Associate Director, Workforce Transformation Psychological Professions

Band 8c

We are committed to promoting inclusion at HEIW and we welcome applications from everybody recognising the value that diversity brings to our workforce. To work in the UK, candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (ROI) nationals require sponsorship via a Skilled Worker Visa, unless they have permission to work via another route. Please note that HEIW does not currently hold a licence to appoint skilled workers from overseas by sponsoring them to work in the UK. If successful, candidates from outside of the UK or ROI would be responsible for obtaining their own sponsorship or visa to enable them to work for HEIW - Work in the UK .

The salary scale for a Band 3 has been adjusted as part of the NHS Agenda for Change pay award for 2026/2027 and will be implemented in August 2026 backdated to 01 April 2026 where applicable.

Job overview

If you are an experienced and visionary leader with a track record of driving innovation and change within the field of psychological therapies, we would like to invite you to be part of a dynamic and transformative team as our next Associate Director for Psychological Professions.

The psychological professions workforce is playing an increasingly important role in the health and care system. As the Professional workforce lead you will provide strategic leadership, advice and guidance for the commissioning and transformation of education and training for the current and future psychological professions workforce. You will apply your professional and clinical knowledge, expertise and experience to influence and set the direction of workforce development and transformation. You will be accountable for ensuring HEIW provides national workforce responses and solutions to drive innovation and enable systems to achieve improvement in health outcomes for populations across Wales; leading the translation and delivery of national workforce frameworks and initiatives to support the development and implementation of sustainable workforce solutions aimed at improving care for citizens in line with the Duty of Quality.

Main duties of the job

Providing strategic leadership, advice and guidance for the commissioning and transformation of education and training for the workforce delivering psychological therapies to meet the ambition of the Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care, and to support increased availability of psychological therapies, through development of skill mix and innovative workforce solutions.

Researching, identifying, and raising awareness of the specific workforce challenges within the psychological professions workforce and working with partners including Welsh Government, professional bodies, NHS and social care organisations and the education sector, to influence and advise upon the development and delivery of education and training programmes to support professional and clinical practice.

Interpreting overall health and social care policy and strategy into specific actions to support workforce development and transformation, establishing measurable goals and outcome measures to evidence impact. This will include using and initiating research activity and building the professional evidence base.

Leading on establishing engagement processes with key stakeholders across Wales and building strategic relationships with professional colleagues across the UK, to represent Wales and to promote and support a workforce transformation improvement driven approach to the delivery of recovery and national programme level initiatives.

Working for our organisation

Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) is the strategic workforce body for NHS Wales with statutory functions that include education and training, workforce planning, workforce development and transformation, leadership and succession planning, and careers. Our purpose is to develop a workforce that delivers excellent care to patients/service users and excellent population health. We are a Special Health Authority working closely with our partners; Social Care Wales, education providers, professional and regulatory bodies and Welsh Government.

HEIW’s is committed to developing an internal culture of choice. Our Values reflect our thoughts, feelings and beliefs in how we will, and will not, behave and treat others:

- Respect for All in every contact we have with others,

- Ideas that Improve: Harnessing creativity and continuously innovating, evaluating and improving,

- Together as a Team: Working with colleagues across NHS Wales and with partner organisations.

HEIW received the HPMA Award for Employee Engagement in 2019.

What you can expect:

- a corporate induction and 90 day Welcome itinerary,

- a meaningful values based performance appraisal process,

- the opportunity to impact upon health and social care services and the lives and wellbeing of the people of Wales.

Many of our colleagues and stakeholders have commented on the buzz and atmosphere we create by working together as “One HEIW Team”. Do you want to join that team?

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; English and/or Welsh speakers are equally welcome to apply.

Person specification

Knowledge and Experience

Experience of working in a senior leadership role within Psychological Therapies
Extensive specialist knowledge of wide range of disciplines as well as the wider health professional workforce acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience.
Experience and understanding of the background to and aims of current health and social care policy, the NHS, current Government policies and work force initiatives in Wales and appreciation of the implications of this on engagement.
Clear understanding of the workforce, service, and education transformation system.
Attendance on a leadership development programme or evidence of implementing compassionate leadership principles and values.
Experience of successful leadership and delivery of highly complex project/programme.
Experience of delivering against competing priorities and deadlines while also directing the work of teams/individuals
Senior management level experience of budgetary responsibility.
Experience of managing and leading staff and delivering results through the development and management of teams
Extensive experience in stakeholder engagement including health and Social Care organisations, education providers and regulatory bodies.
Experience of managing projects/programmes of work in challenging environments.

Qualifications and Knowledge

Highly experienced qualified psychological therapies practitioner with current professional registration with a relevant national regulatory body.
Significant breadth and depth of clinical, managerial, and educational experience
Educated to Master level or equivalent.
Management and personal development including understanding of the NHS structure, services, and change agenda.
Understanding of Duty of Quality Guidance and Principles in NHS Wales.
Education to PHD/Doctorate level

Skills and Attributes

Welsh Language Skills are desirable levels 1 to 5 in understanding, speaking, reading and writing in Welsh
Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
Ability to manage ambiguity and complex competing priorities
Ability to analyse complex facts, information, data, and situations and develop a range of options or solutions
Excellent organisational skills and ability to plan and organise a broad range of complex activities, formulating and adjusting plans to reflect changing circumstances.
Excellent interprofessional, communications, negotiating and influencing skills.
Excellent presentation skills.
Ability to think strategically and anticipate problems.
Ability to develop ideas; translate strategy into action
Ability to build effective cross functional working relationships across a diverse range of stakeholders
Ability to work across organisations and professions and sustain effective working relationships.
Ability to write a broad range of high-quality reports and materials
Confidence to implement change both internal and externally making difficult decisions.
Demonstrates a strong desire to improve workforce and service improvement by focusing on outcomes and benefits
Able to make connections between the work and consistently thinks about how their work can help and support clinicians and frontline staff to deliver better outcomes for service users
Makes decisions, has a clear reason for the decisions made and is aware of their impact
Willing to engage with and learn from peers, other professionals, and colleagues.
Constructively challenges and accepts constructive challenge
Effective organiser, influencer, and networker
Professional calm, efficient and effective manner
Able to adapt and be flexible to cope with uncertainty and change
Shares knowledge and information and actively promotes transformational change and improvement
Leads by example, tenacious, driven, and enthusiastic to achieve goals.
Uses initiative and takes responsibility for own actions and behaviours and consistently looks to improve what they do, looking for successful tried and tested ways of working, and seeking out innovation
Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of equality of opportunity and diversity taking into account and being aware of how individual actions contribute to and make a difference to the equality agenda