Fixed Term/Temporary Contracts Guidance - August 2026
In this section
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Purpose
- 3. Scope
- 4. Differences Between a Fixed Term Contract and Temporary Contract
- 5. Workers
- 6. Successive Use of Fixed term/ Temporary Contracts
- 7. Issuing Fixed term/ Temporary Contracts
- 8. Rights of Fixed term/ Temporary Employees
- 9. Fixed Term/Temporary Contracts and Restructuring
- 10. Fixed-term or Temporary Employees Applying for Secondments
- 11. Selection for Redundancy
- 12. Redundancy Payment
- 13. Continuous Service
- 14. Access to Permanent Posts
- 15. Renewal and Non-Renewal of Fixed Term/Temporary Contracts
- 16. Reviewing Fixed term / Temporary Contracts
- 17. Renewal of a Fixed term / Temporary Contract
- 18. Non-Renewal of a Fixed Term / Temporary Contract
- 19. Ensuring Equality of Opportunity
- Appendix A – Restructuring and Fixed Term/ Temporary Contracts Q&A
- Appendix B – Consultation Invite Letter Fixed Term/ Temporary Contract
5. Workers
Casual Workers are not employees of the Authority / school and should be used only under the following circumstances:
Where the work
Occurs only once and for a short period of time (maximum period of 3 months), or
Which occurs more often but on an irregular and infrequent basis, and
Where there is no obligation on the Authority or school to offer work, and no obligation on the individual to accept it.
These are workers engaged for a one-off event or a series of one-off events, e.g. summer play scheme workers, summer placements.
Casual workers can drift into longer term working arrangements and care needs to be taken to differentiate between a ‘true’ casual and individuals who are being utilised on a more frequent and regular basis. Casual workers accrue statutory holiday entitlement in line with UK’s Working Time Regulations, i.e. 5.6 weeks (28 days including 8 Bank/Public Holidays) pro rata.