NHS Scotland
Senior Educator
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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 arrangements. We welcome conversations about alternative working patterns—please get in touch during the application process to discuss.
Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Full Time, 36 hours per week
Fixed-term or Secondment for 2 years
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.
Optometry sits within the Dental Directorate and supports the provision of General Ophthalmic Services community eyecare practices across Scotland. It supports up-skilling of eyecare practitioners, to facilitate delivery of safe, effective eyecare to the population of Scotland.
Optometry strives to provide education that:
- Is patient focused and improves patient care
- Is high quality and effective
- Optometry team members want to, and can, attend.
The Opportunity
This is a fantastic opportunity to join the Optometry team responsible for postgraduate support of Eye Care Practitioners.
This is an exciting period in eyecare education in Scotland, with the roll out of national eyecare services including the GOS Specialist Supplementary Eye Service, community glaucoma service (CGS) and the community low vision service (CLVS) and the development of the new MOptom (IP) programme incorporating the Foundation Training Year. These services require appropriately trained Eye Care Practitioners.
The Senior Educator role is varied and provides a significant opportunity to shape the future of postgraduate optometry education and training in Scotland. This is an exciting new role for a practitioner keen to support and develop the Independent Prescribing Optometrist community. As the Independent Prescribing optometrist community grows, and with the implementation of the GOS Speciality Supplementary Service and the new MOptom (IP), we want to address supportive resources. To be confident and competent prescribing practitioners, they must have the access to appropriate resources, and training and development opportunities.
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Do you want to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders across Scotland to play a lead role in delivering national education for the Eye Care workforce?
Do you enjoy working with a diverse range of organisations to lead initiatives that support career development and professional growth within eyecare in Scotland?
Do you want to play a key role in shaping and enhancing the learning experience within the newly qualified and established Independent Prescribing community?
Do you thrive in a fast-paced environment where you need to be adaptable and responsive to change?
Do you enjoy building strong relationships and creating a shared vision to support innovation and transformation across the profession?
Working within the PSD Scotland Optometry team you will have the opportunity to bring your unique skills and experience to the table, collaborating across multiple workstreams to effect real change within the optometry workforce in Scotland.
Does this sound like you?
What We Love To See
Senior Educators offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:
- Registered Optometrist with the General Optical Council (GOC) with IP qualification or appropriate healthcare registration.
- Significant experience practising as an optometrist across any setting (e.g. community, hospital, academia).
- Experience contributing to quality assurance, educational governance, or programme oversight.
- Experience working within an education or training-focused environment.
- A strong understanding of what underpins high-quality learning and how this can be embedded and continuously improved in practice-based settings.
- Experience working collaboratively across teams and with a range of stakeholders.
- Excellent communication, interpersonal, and influencing skills, with the ability to convey complex or sensitive information clearly and effectively.
- 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.
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We welcome applications from all under-represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in Senior Educator 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 Lesley Rousselet and Kathy Morrison, Associate Directors – Optometry nes.ad-optometry@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.
In person OR online interviews (including a presentation will take place on Tuesday 29th 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
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