Principal Educational Psychologist

The following content displays a map of the jobs location - Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Dynamics Position No. and Role Profile Code 100725A

Number of Positions:

1

Contract Type:

Permanent

Soulbury Scale B 12-15, with up to three SPA points where applicable.

Working Hours:

37

Location:

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Closing Date:

30/10/2026

Job Category:

Children's Services

Region / Division:

Children's Services

Business Unit:

Education and Skills

This role sits within a well defined pay band, offering clear progression as you grow your career hout exception all new starters begin at the entry point of the band, ensuring fairness and consistency across the organisation. Be part of a forward thinking workplace where you’re supported to grow and you can truly #Be The Difference  at BCP .

Principal Educational Psychologist – Lead the Next Stage of Our Service

This is an exciting opportunity to lead an Educational Psychology Service at an important point in its development.

Through our Experts at Hand programme, we are developing cluster-based approaches that bring professionals together around children, families and schools. Alongside wider SEND reforms, our Educational Psychology Service has an important role in helping shape earlier intervention, inclusive practice and the Local Authority's response to the changing SEND landscape.

At the heart of our approach is a simple belief: when we understand a child or young person better, we are better placed to make a difference.

Lead, shape and influence

As Principal Educational Psychologist, you will have the opportunity to build on the foundations we are establishing and shape the next stage of our development.

You will provide professional and strategic leadership to the Educational Psychology Service, developing a culture in which excellent applications of psychology, curiosity and innovation are encouraged.

You will contribute towards the development of Experts at Hand and our response to SEND reform, while strengthening the contribution of psychology across Children's Services and the wider Local Authority.

Your role will include strategic service development, workforce leadership, quality assurance, commissioning and financial management, alongside building strong partnerships with schools, families, Public Health, the NHS and wider SEND services.

We want our service to be outward-facing and responsive: identifying emerging needs, developing and evaluating innovative approaches, learning from excellent practice elsewhere and sharing our own practice more widely.

A message from our Interim Principal Educational Psychologist

My priority as Interim PEP is to establish strong foundations for the future: a clear professional direction, a developing leadership structure and a service that is ambitious about the contribution psychology can make.

I want to hand over a service that is ready for its next Principal Educational Psychologist to take forward.

There is still work to do, and that is part of the opportunity. The next PEP will have the scope to bring their own ideas, build on what is working and shape a service that is increasingly able to respond to the needs of children, families, schools, the Local Authority and our wider community.

Mike Lane
Interim Principal Educational Psychologist

About you

You will be a qualified and HCPC-registered Educational Psychologist with substantial leadership experience within a Local Authority or comparable setting.

You will bring strategic thinking, strong professional leadership and the ability to build effective relationships across services and organisations. You will be comfortable leading through change, using data and evidence to inform decisions, and creating the conditions in which psychologists and…