If someone is on a permanent contract then their employment cannot simply be terminated ever. They can be made redundant, which means that the role cannot be refilled, or they can be fired but only after going through a disciplinary procedure (In the UK these rules only comes into effect after the first 2 years of employment).
You can, but I have never been offered a multi-year employment contract. Employers seem to prefer the flexibility of being able to terminate employment sooner than that.