Educational Lead

On 1 April 2026, NSS and NES became one national organisation, focused on continuity today and a stronger, more connected service for tomorrow.

As part of this transformation, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) have joined to form a new organisation: Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). This new organisation will play a pivotal role in supporting the renewal and ensuring the long-term sustainability of health and care services across Scotland.

Flexible Location: PSD Scotland is a remote-friendly employer with staff based throughout Scotland. We support office-based and hybrid working. Some office attendance will be required around business need at Glasgow and Edinburgh offices.

Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Part Time, 18 hours per week

Fixed-term or Secondment** until 31st March 2028 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

PSD Scotland unites expertise from NES and NSS in a way that will allow us to accelerate national programmes to support the NHS to deliver better care, now and in the future.

We support staff with education and training, provide the tools and data that improve services, and run vital national functions such as procurement, logistics and blood, tissue and cell services.

The PSD Scotland Psychology Directorate has two major areas of responsibility:

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

PSD Scotland 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 PSD Scotland educational strategy to support increased availability of psychological interventions and therapies. PSD Scotland 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 individual to be part of our talented and highly versatile team, based at our PSD Scotland offices in Edinburgh or Glasgow.

We are recruiting 0.5wte Educational Lead 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.

Working with the team of Educational Leads, 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 PSD Scotland 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?

Working within the PSD Scotland Psychology Directorate 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:

• Knowledge and skills in psychological interventions and therapy
• Experience in delivering psychologically informed education and training
• Excellent communication skills, and the ability to engage and inspire learners
• Experience of using data to understand the impact of psychological interventions or training
• Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
• 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:

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

Diversity and Inclusion

Developing a successful national service for Scotland means considering the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland. We are focused on hiring the very best talent and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Our aim to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has a positive recruitment experience—regardless of the outcome.

We welcome applications from all under-represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in Educational Lead role right now—you may be returning from a career break (e.g., maternity, paternity, caring) or coming from another field. Your experiences can bring a fresh perspective to our work.

If you are considering applying and would like to discuss the opportunity, any adjustments or alternative work patterns, please contact Dr Helen Bradford, Head of Programme – helen.bradford@nhs.scot

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.
  
  

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

Online interviews (including a presentation will take place on 4th September 2026. 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.

• Please be advised that if you are successful in being offered the role following the recruitment process, you will be expected to attend the office prior to your start date to complete face-to-face pre-employment checks. If you require any adjustments to support this, please let us know.
• To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.
  
  

As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website here. 

For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licenced Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or ‘going rate’. Further information on these criteria can be found here.

It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFORE submitting your application form.

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: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot