Contracts and Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Calculations in SWAC

This guide explains how staff contracts inform roles and the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) calculations within your Welsh School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) return in Arbor.

Permissions

You'll need the Staff Profile: All Staff: View Basic HR Details permission to view the necessary contract information, and the Staff Profile: Setup: All Staff: Contract Management permission to edit contracts and salaries.

If you don't have the relevant permissions, ask your admin team to give you permission using these instructions.

Contracts and Positions

 For a staff member to be included in the census with their correct Role(s) and FTE values, they must have:

• A Contract for each role they undertake
• The Position linked to that contract must have a correct Census business role assigned to it

Adding a contract

Use this guide to see how to add contracts from a staff profile on their Contracts page from the left-hand menu. When adding a contract, ensure that you set a Position and verify that the position has a census business role assigned.

Important Contract Fields

For main roles that require an FTE value (like a Teacher), the following fields need accurate recording on the contract:

• Hours per week 
• FTE Hours per Week 

For all roles (regardless of whether they are main or additional), ensure you record a Position and Census Business role.

Setting the correct position

See how to set and manage positions here and use the table in the Appendix to match the right business role to the position.

For example, you may need to record a staff member as a head teacher. To do so, you would take these steps:

• Head to School > All Staff > HR Admin > Positions > Positions > Overview to check you have the head teacher position
• If you do not:
   
  • Click +Add to create one
  • Enter the details of the position in Arbor 
  • Click Save changes
• Once you have done this, or if the position you need already exists, click on the position in the All  tab
• Click on the Position category
• Use the dropdowns to set the correct census business role (HT- Headteachers) and category (Head Teacher) by referring to the table in the Appendix
• Click Save Changes
  
  
• Head to the contracts page of the staff member's profile 
• Scroll to the section that lists the staff member's Job Title, Position and Post period
• Click on Position
• On the slide-over, select the position you just created/tweaked with the dropdown.
• Click Save changes

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Calculation

The FTE output in SWAC is calculated based on the contract details recorded in Arbor, specifically the Pro Rata (Weekly) FTE of the salary recorded with the contract. The FTE recorded for a staff member determines whether the staff member is classed as full or part-time in the return. You can see how to record a salary contract in Arbor here. 

Note: if you do not record salary information in Arbor, you still use the salary section on the contract to record FTE. To not record any salary details, enter a Custom FTE salary amount of 0 to ensure the FTE saves.

General FTE Rules

• Teachers: FTE is generally calculated based on directed hours, assuming a full-time week is 32.5 hours. 
• Other Support Staff: FTE is calculated as actual hours worked as a percentage of the full-time hours for that specific post within a school week.
• Full-Time: staff with an FTE of 1 or more are classed as full-time
• Part-time: staff with an FTE below 1 are classed as part-time

Main vs. Additional Roles

Staff members can have two types of roles: a Main Role and an Additional Role. You can use the table in the Appendix to confirm which roles are considered main and which are considered additional.

• Main Roles (e.g., Teacher, Headteacher, Main ALN Co-ordinator) require a weekly FTE value. Not including an FTE value for a main role results in a 13250 error.
• Additional Roles (e.g., Additional ALN Co-ordinator) do not require an FTE value. Including an FTE value for an additional role will result in a 13251 error. 

Scenarios and Examples

• Teaching/Support Split: An individual working 3 days/week as a Qualified Teacher (QT) and 2 days/week as a Teaching Assistant (TA) would record two main roles. In this case, Role 1 would be QT (FTE=0.60) and Role 2 would be TA (FTE=0.40).
• Leadership/Co-ordinator Split: A Headteacher (HT) who also acts as the school's Additional Learning Needs Coordinator (ALNCO) would record HT as the Main Role (FTE=1.0) and ALNCO as an Additional Role.
• Primary ALNCO Role: Since 2020, a new 'Main' role code, SP (ALN Co-ordinator for individuals where it is their primary role), was added for individuals undertaking ALNCo duties as their principal function, meaning an FTE must be recorded.
• Total FTE > 1.0: If an individual holds a specific role (e.g., Teaching Assistant, FTE 1.0) and a separate contract for a Midday Supervisor (MS) role, both roles and their respective FTEs should be recorded. This is one instance where the total FTE might legitimately exceed 1.0 (e.g., total FTE=1.17). Note: FTE greater than 1.25 will result in a 13252 query.
   

Choosing FTE hours per week and hours per week to get the correct FTE

Arbor calculates a staff member's FTE associated with a contract with the following formula:

Hours worked per week / FTE Hours per week = FTE

The Hours worked per week here refer to the actual hours the staff member works per week. FTE (or full-time equivalent) Hours per week are the hours a typical full-time staff member would work per week in that role.

This means that if you know what a staff member's FTE for a role is, as well as the hours they work in that role, you can calculate which FTE hours per week to enter with this formula:

Hours worked per week / FTE = FTE hours per week

For example, if a staff member has an FTE of 0.7 for a specific role and works 23 hours in that role per week, the FTE hours per week would be 23:00/0.7 FTE = 32.85 FTE Hours. Which you would enter as 32:52 (since 0.86 * 60 minutes equals 52 minutes, and the format required is HH:MM). 

If the staff member had a second additional role that brings them to full-time (i.e. 1 > FTE), their FTE for that role might be 0.3, and they might work 9 hours per week in that role, so their FTE Hours per week would be 9/0.3 = 30 hours (entered as 30:00).
 

Adding FTE, an example

Say you have a Full-time staff member with two main roles and one additional role. Their main roles are equally divided throughout a typical week, and they perform their additional role on an ad hoc basis.  How would you record this in Arbor?

As the staff member is full-time, their FTE needs to be 1 or greater. Additionally, since they have two main roles, the total FTE for those roles must be greater than 1. Furthermore, as they have an additional role, no FTE should be recorded for that role.

So, you would need to:

• Head to the staff member's Contracts page
• Use the dropdown to switch between contracts
• On the first Main contract, head to the Salary section
• Click +Add
• In the FTE Salary section of the slide-over, set a custom FTE salary amount (this can be set to 0)
• In the Pro Rata Calculation section, enter the hours someone working that role full-time works in the FTE Hours per week field (use the format HH:MM) - for example, 32:30
• In the Hours per week section, enter the hours the staff member in question works in the role. In this example, this represents half of the staff member's working week, so it should be half the FTE Hours per week, or 16:15.
  
  
• Notice that Arbor automatically calculates the staff member's FTE as 0.5
• Click Save Changes to confirm
• Change the dropdown on the contract page to the other main role contracts, and repeat these steps.
• For the additional role, do not record a salary/FTE

Note on entering a Salary amount when saving contract hours

While the School Data Return does not use salary values, a salary value is currently mandatory on the slide-over when you enter a staff member's hours; Arbor won't let you save the hours without a salary amount. You can enter zero in the "Custom FTE salary amount" to pass the validation without affecting the census data.

The Additional Learning Needs Coordinator (ALNCO) Role

The Additional Learning Needs Coordinator (ALNCO) role is a specific example of how Arbor handles both Main and Additional staff roles, which significantly impacts the required Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) entry for the SWAC return.

ALNCO as an Additional Role

In some scenarios, an ALNCO may be recorded as an Additional Role.

• For instance, a Headteacher (HT) whose primary role is leadership but who also performs ALNCO duties would record HT as the Main Role (FTE=1.0) and ALNCO (code SC) as an Additional Role.
• When an ALNCO is an Additional Role, it does not require an FTE value to be entered in the census. Only a Contract linked to a Position with the correct Census Business Role is needed.
   

ALNCO as a Main Role (Primary ALNCO)

In other cases, the ALNCo position is considered the individual's principal function, making it a Main Role.

• Since 2020, a specific 'Main' role code, SP (ALN Co-ordinator for individuals where it is their primary role), has been added for individuals whose primary role is to undertake ALNCo duties.
• When using this designated Main Role code, an FTE must be recorded.

The ALNCo role is more likely to be a Main Role in a larger secondary school.
 

Errors and Queries related to FTE, Contracts and Positions

Mandatory errors

13250 - FTE is missing for the given main staff role.

If the census business role assigned to a staff member's position is a Main role, FTE needs to be recorded via their contract. To resolve this error:

• Ensure the census business role is a main role using the Appendix
• Record a salary with FTE 

13251 - FTE should not be provided for the given additional staff role. 

If the census business role assigned to a staff member's position is an Additional role, FTE should not be recorded via their contract. To resolve this error:

• Ensure the census business role is a main role using the Appendix
• Remove any recorded salary from the role by clicking on it, followed by the red Delete button

Cautionary queries

13135 - Please check: at least one workforce member record in schools return should show a role of Head Teacher, Executive Head Teacher or Acting Head Teacher.

One of these census business roles is expected to be linked to the position of at least one staff member. To resolve this query:

• Make sure you have one of these positions set up
• Make sure one of these positions is recorded on at least one staff contract

13136 - Please check: at least one workforce member record in schools return should show a role of SEN ALN Co-ordinator.

If you have an ALN co-ordinator in your school, ensure you record an ALN contract for them (either main or additional).

13252 - Please check: Workforce member has an FTE greater than 1.25 across all staff roles.

Verify that the Weekly FTE values for all roles with a position that has a main census business role accurately add up to the expected FTE. 

• If they do, double-check that the staff member's FTE should total 1.25 or higher 
• If they do not:
   
  • Adjust the FTE values for the roles if needed, so they total to the correct FTE
  • Double-check that Additional roles have not accidentally been assigned a Main census business role and salary

Appendix