“It was a hard-nosed business decision,” Bill Lord says.

This seems an unexpected way for a school leader to describe a decision that allowed his teachers, variously, to attend their children’s school assemblies, take long weekends and spend weekday afternoons at sports events.

Lord is headteacher of Long Sutton Primary School in Lincolnshire. Until recently, he was finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff. And then he brought in official duvet days - which members of staff can take off during term-time - and this all changed.

Each member of staff at Long Sutton, from the headteacher through to the cleaners, is entitled to annual duvet days equivalent to a fifth of one working week. So, for a full-time member of staff, this works out as one duvet day per year. Someone who works a three-day week, meanwhile, can take off one morning a year.

‘Recruitment is incredibly tough. It’s not uncommon to receive zero applications’

“That classic thing, where teachers are caught on telly at a football match or at Wimbledon?” Lord says. “I’d be very happy about that. We’re open with parents: this is helping keep the best staff in school.”

Among the 17 members of staff at Long Sutton, 10 have been at the school since 2012. Five joined as newly qualified teachers; they have been at the school between 18 months and four-and-a-half years, respectively.

Lord puts aside £3,500 a year of the school’s budget to cover the scheme. “Each year, we look at our staff retention, and we can justify it,” he says. “When new staff come in, they have to have an induction. We have to release the head of teaching and learning to work with them. That’s on top of the advert, and releasing senior management for the shortlist interviews.”

It helps recruitment as well as retention, Mr Lord says: “Recruitment is incredibly tough. We’re working in an area where it’s not uncommon to receive zero applications for a post. So, yes, we always include it in our job adverts.”

‘Gift exchange’

Increasingly, schools in areas that have been struggling with recruitment are introducing perks such as duvet days for their staff. Including fringe benefits like these is a sound strategy, according to Alex Bryson, professor of quantitative social science at the UCL Institute of Education.

Economists talk about this kind of employeremployee contract as a “gift exchange”: in addition to monetary payment, the employee is offered “gifts”, such as flexible working hours or duvet days.

“These benefits - they might be called fringe benefits,” Professor Bryson says. “But they’re also things that help you fit your life into your job - or your job into your life. They’re very, very highly valued by employees.”

‘These things help you fit your life into your job. They’re very highly valued by employees’

“In exchange, the employer might hope for reciprocation in the form of loyalty, or reciprocating effort.”

Long Sutton staff can split their duvet day into smaller chunks of time off. So a teacher might choose to take a Friday afternoon and a Monday morning, allowing for a term-time weekend break.

Year 4 teacher Nikki Dowding initially split her duvet day into four, in order to attend her two daughters’ sports days and Christmas plays. “It meant I didn’t feel guilty that I was getting special treatment,” she says. “Often, that sort of thing creates resentment among staff who don’t have children. Even though it’s not that exciting waiting for the one race your daughter is in.”

For love, not money

Research carried out by Harald Dale-Olsen, of Norway’s Institute for Social Research, showed that workers actually value these fringe benefits more highly than they would the cash equivalent.

This is particularly the case with people who are primarily motivated by the intrinsic rewards of their job - watching young children learn, for example - rather than by extrinsic rewards, such as money.

“You’re sort of meeting the worker halfway,” Bryson says. “You’re expecting full commitment when they’re in work but also recognising that they’re human beings with other, competing tasks in their lives.”

Dowding’s daughters now attend Long Sutton, and she uses her duvet day for something more indulgent than a child’s school sports day.

“I usually take it in the summer, and sit on a beach,” she says. “It’s a day when I’m not a teacher or a mum or a wife. One day of the year, I can just relax, without worrying about anyone else.

“Speaking as a working mum, it’s a special time. Cash wouldn’t be the same. Not at all. Even if I had the money, I wouldn’t go and spend the day in a spa - I’d be driving the girls around.”

This is Mr Lord’s intention. “It’s part of a holistic plan to look after staff,” he says. “When you’re having a bad day, you know you’ve got something coming up.”

As a member of Long Sutton staff, Mr Lord, too, is entitled to one duvet day a year. When asked what he uses his for, he laughs wryly in response. “I haven’t used mine,” he says. “It’s that classic - that awful - thing. The only two people who haven’t taken it are the senior leaders.”

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