Morale | Skills England staff engagement plunges amid departmental upheaval

Staff engagement at Skills England has fallen below the civil service average following a period of structural change and uncertainty over the agency’s move between government departments.

The agency recorded an engagement score of just 46% in the 2025 Civil Service People Survey, according to its first annual accounts. Analysis by FE Week found this was more than 19 percentage points below the 65.3% achieved by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), which Skills England replaced.

Among the 105 organisation-level scores listed in the published benchmark data, only the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory recorded a lower result, at 42.8%.

The civil service median engagement score was 64.9%, while the Department for Education (DfE), which sponsored Skills England throughout the period covered by the accounts, scored 65.5%.