Staffordshire County Council - Principal Educational Psychologist

Job Introduction
This is a rare and exciting opportunity to lead educational psychology at the heart of Staffordshire’s ambition for children and young people with SEND. Staffordshire County Council is seeking an outstanding Principal Educational Psychologist to provide strategic, professional and operational leadership for a respected, countywide service with a strong reputation for excellence, inclusive practice and innovative psychological intervention.

About the role
This is a significant senior leadership role within Staffordshire’s SEND and inclusion system. Reporting to the Head of SEND, you will provide authoritative psychological leadership and expert technical advice to support the Council’s statutory responsibilities for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. You will lead and develop Staffordshire Educational Psychology Service, ensuring that practice is evidence-informed, inclusive, timely, high quality and firmly focused on improving outcomes for children, young people and families.

You will shape the future direction of the service, leading workforce planning, professional standards, supervision, continuing professional development and quality assurance. As a senior psychological leader, you will represent educational psychology within wider SEND governance, reform and partnership arrangements, helping to strengthen inclusive practice across schools, settings, services and partner agencies.

Main Responsibilities:

• Providing strategic, professional and operational leadership for a large Educational Psychology Service.
• Ensuring the Council has a robust, high-quality educational psychology offer that supports statutory SEND functions and contributes to early, effective intervention.
• Leading, motivating and developing senior colleagues and specialist teams across the partnership, promoting a culture of reflective, ethical and psychologically informed practice.
• Championing the voice, needs and aspirations of children and young people with SEND, offering both support and constructive challenge across the system.
• Using performance, quality assurance, workforce and budget information to inform service planning, improvement and decision-making.
• Building strong partnerships with schools, settings, families, health, social care, commissioned providers and regional and national professional networks.
• Contributing to SEND and Inclusion reform, inspection readiness, service redesign and wider council priorities relating to inclusion and improved outcomes

The Ideal Candidate
The minimum criteria that will be used to shortlist for this role will be:

• A recognised postgraduate qualification in professional educational psychology, HCPC registration and chartered psychologist status, or eligibility for chartered status with the British Psychological Society. 
• You will bring substantial post-qualification experience as a Senior or Principal Educational Psychologist, strong knowledge of statutory SEND duties and evidence-informed psychological practice.
• A successful track record of supervision, service development, partnership working and change leadership.
• You will also be able to travel across Staffordshire and occasionally beyond the county as required.

For an informal conversation contact Dr Halit Hulusi - Head of SEND at halit.hulusi@staffordshire.gov.uk

Our Recruitment Process: We anonymise applications during shortlisting to ensure only relevant information is considered. Please complete your application fully, especially the supporting statement, to highlight what you’ll bring to the role.

Please note: The minimum criteria in the ideal candidate section detailed above will be used if you are applying under one of our Interview Guarantee Schemes detailed below.

An enhanced DBS check is required for this post.

Principal Educational Psychologist | 20 September, 2026 | Jobs and careers with Staffordshire County Council