EC-689 Educational Lead

NHS National Services Scotland; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 30,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job description

Flexible Location: Based throughout Scotland, NES is a remote friendly employer supporting office and hybrid working. We’re happy to talk about how you want to work. Some office attendance is required, particularly during induction. Frequency is informed by business need.

Work Pattern: Fixed Term, up to 37 hours per week - minimum of 15 hours will be considered. Please highlight in your application how many hours you are applying for.

Fixed-term or Secondment** until 31^st March 2026 in the first instance.

**For NHS applicants, an NHS secondment will be offered in the first instance. For non-NHS applicants, a fixed-term or secondment would be considered.

You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment.

Who We Are

NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is the national health board with statutory responsibilities to effect sustainable change through workforce development, education and training across the health and social care system in Scotland, while working at UK level with partner organisations.

The NES Psychology Directorate has two major areas of responsibility:

1. Training of psychologists for NHS Scotland
2. Upskilling the existing multi-professional workforce in psychological care

NES has responsibility for commissioning pre-registration training for clinical and applied psychology for NHSScotland. Through partnership working with NHS Boards and Universities, we have been involved in ensuring training pathways reflect changing service needs. The Directorate has developed relationships with a wide range of other stakeholders in Scotland (e.g. Scottish Government, Higher Education Institutes) and across the UK (e.g. Department of Health, professional and regulatory bodies) to take forward its modernisation agenda for this professional group.

The directorate has a leading role in developing NES educational strategy to support increased availability of psychological interventions and therapies. NES has been directed to work in partnership with Scottish Government, the Scottish Social Services Council, NHS Boards and other key stakeholders to increase the capacity within the current workforce to deliver evidence-based psychological interventions.

The Opportunity

We are looking for enthusiastic and self-motivated individuals to be part of our talented and highly versatile team, based at our NES offices in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

We are recruiting 4 full-time Education Leads to join the Psychology Directorate to support the delivery of multidisciplinary training and education across NHS Scotland. This involves direct delivery, implementation support and the use of data to evaluate and measure the impact of training.

You will collaborate across multiple workstreams (including those focused on children and young people, adults, and those working across the lifespan), having a direct impact on the NES Psychology Directorate achieving and delivering their Scottish Government commissioned priorities.

You will use your research and analytical skills to support the Psychology Directorate commitment to evidence-based practice.

Do you enjoy communicating psychological concepts and theory in an informative and engaging way?

Do you enjoy working at pace and being adaptive to an ever-changing environment?

Do you enjoy making a difference, influencing improved ways of working, and sharing innovative ideas?

Do you want to play a key role in delivering high-quality education and training to the multidisciplinary health and social care workforce?

This is an excellent opportunity to gain experience operating in an educational role.

Does this sound like you?

What We Love to See

Educational Leads offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:

1. Knowledge and skills in psychological interventions and therapy
2. Experience in delivering psychologically informed education and training
3. Excellent communication skills, and the ability to engage and inspire learners
4. Experience of using data to understand the impact of psychological interventions or training
5. Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
6. Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines

Benefits Which Matter

As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including:

1. Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working
2. Generous NHS pension scheme
3. Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review
4. Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday
5. NHS discounts and more

Diversity and Inclusion

Developing a successful national service for Scotland is impossible without ensuring we consider the diverse needs, perspectives and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland in our work.

We are focused on hiring the very best talent available for NES, and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and aim to ensure everyone is treated fairly, with respect and has a positive recruitment experience – regardless of the outcome.

It’s not essential to be in Educational Lead role right now. You may be a newly qualified or experienced Clinical Associate in Applied Psychology, returning from a career break (e.g. maternity, paternity, caring for others) or returning after working in another field. Your experiences elsewhere can bring a fresh perspective to our work.

If you are considering applying and feel it would be helpful to discuss this initially, please contact Dr Helen Bradford, Head of Programme – [e-mail].

Next Steps

**NHS candidates will be considered firstly on a secondment basis, and so are strongly encouraged to discuss this with their current NHS employer at the earliest opportunity, ideally prior to application.

Our recruitment process is currently 100% remote and if successful you would initially work remotely, working from our offices as operationally required.

All applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail.

Online interviews (including a presentation) will take place on mid-late May (date TBC) 2025. The presentation topic will be sent to candidates selected for interview.

For further information please refer to the Job Information Pack below.

Unless otherwise stated the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CVs will not be accepted.

If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: [e-mail]