The closing date for this job has now passed.

Job reference: 192055
Salary: Band 8A (£56,992 - £61,522)
Job closing date: 29/07/2024
Job Type: Healthcare Sciences
Location: Flexible Location
Employment type: Fixed-term or Secondment
Hours Per Week: 10 hours and 30 minutes (10.5) hours per week
Job posted date: 16/07/2024
Employer (NHS Board): NHS Education For Scotland
Department: Healthcare Science (Dental Directorate)

Job Advert

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. 

Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Part-time, 10 hours and 30 minutes (10.5) hours per week 

Fixed-term or Secondment** until 30 June 2026  

**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 Dental Directorate hosts both Optometry and Healthcare Science groups. For all three, the Directorate’s primary functions are to: 

  • Ensure that the education and lifelong learning needs of clinical professionals covered by dentistry, optometry and healthcare science serving NHS Scotland are effectively met 

  • Ensure that all aspects of NES strategy relevant to these professions are met 

  • Ensure that multi-disciplinary aspects of NES have a robust contribution from the Directorate, and in certain cases, are led by the Directorate 

The Directorate takes the lead in education, training, workforce intelligence and policy initiatives from Scottish Government for the three discrete professional areas. In addition, the Directorate has corporate responsibility to NES for providing high level strategic advice on these areas. 

NES Healthcare Science has a specific role in training commissions (to best secure the postgraduate scientist workforce), generic CPD and in the quality assurance of NHS training for scientific staff. The Health Care Science Core Team leads our training quality assurance programme; CPD development and delivery programme; postgraduate training commissioning; and careers engagement.   

National Services Scotland (NSS) is a national NHS Board operating right at the heart of NHS Scotland providing invaluable support and advice at a strategic and operational level.  NSS supports customers to deliver their services more efficiently and effectively and offer shared services on a national scale using best-in-class systems and standards. Our priority is to improve the health and well-being of the people of Scotland. We do this by working in partnership with colleagues across Health and Social Care to deliver fit for purpose solutions and systems, delivering high quality services that help our stakeholders to free up resources so they can be re-invested into essential services.  

The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine (SSNGM) is a strategic network embedded within National Services Division which brings genomics expertise and interest from across the NHS, academia, industry and the third sector together under a single network to provide a seamless, fully considered, sustainable, and scalable genomics service for Scotland. The network supports the planning, finance, and improvement of service change to achieve better patient outcomes and more efficient service delivery models in Scotland. 

As part of this partnership, the successful applicant will be employed by NHS Education for Scotland within the Dental Directorate. 

The Opportunity 

This is an exciting collaboration between the Scottish Strategic Network for Genomics Medicine and NES Healthcare Science. This position entails facilitating the central coordination of training and education in Genomic Medicine, while also offering professional guidance in collaboration with key stakeholders to shape the future delivery of training and education. 

Do you enjoy cultivating national collaborations and contributing to service and educational advancements?  

Do you enjoy coordinating and supporting educational design and delivery in line with quality assurance and governance processes? 

Do you thrive in an environment where you collaborate with key stakeholders to establish coherent pathways and resources?  

Do you enjoy the challenge of working across professional, clinical, and organisational boundaries internally and externally to achieve your objectives? 

Do you want to influence and shape Genomic Science education and training agenda on a national and UK basis?  

Working within the NHS Education for Scotland and The Scottish Strategic Network for Genomic Medicine, you will have the opportunity to bring your unique skills and experience to shape the future of education and training within Genomic Medicine. 

Does this sound like you? 

What We Love to See 

Senior Specialist Leads offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we would love you to apply:  

  • Possession of a Master’s degree or equivalent experience, with a commitment to ongoing professional development  

  • A clear sense of professional purpose and strategic direction 

  • Excellent communication, interpersonal, negotiating, influencing and facilitation skills 

  • Ability to influence and shape the Genomic education and training agenda nationally 

  • Professional understanding of the healthcare science sector and its educational requirements 

  • Experience of collaborating with key stakeholders to create coherent pathways and resource repositories 

  • Experience in cultivating and strengthening national collaborations to advance educational frameworks 

  • An aptitude for crafting briefing documents, reports, and materials for stakeholder engagement 

  • 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 workloads, and those of others, and 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 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 a Senior Specialist Lead role right now. You may be 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 Lorna Crawford, Head of Programme, lorna.crawford@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.   

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 Tuesday 13 August 2024. 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: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot 

Take a look around the company https://jobs.scot.nhs.uk/