Caseload privacy lets you narrow who in your organisation can see a client, a single case, or everyone on your caseload.
Why caseload privacy exists
By default, anyone signed in to your organisation can browse the organisation's whole caseload: the All tab on Client cases, search, the messages inbox, the calendar, lists and reports all show every client.
That is the right default for most teams, but not for every client. A client may be known personally to a colleague, a situation may involve safeguarding or domestic abuse, a team member may also be a client, or an organisation may run separate internal caseloads that should not overlap. Caseload privacy narrows visibility down to the people actually working with that person.
Who can still see a hidden client or case
A hidden client or case stays visible to:
the staff assigned to it, and
organisation Owners.
Nobody else can see it. Organisation Admins and ordinary Users are excluded in exactly the same way as everyone else. Only assigned staff and Owners can hide or unhide.
Hide one client
Hiding a client hides that person and everything linked to them. You can do it from two places, and both apply immediately — there is no confirmation step, so check you have the right client first.
From the client cases list
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Find the client's row and select the actions button (⋯) at the end of it.
Select Hide from other staff.
You will see the confirmation message Client hidden from other staff, and a padlock appears next to the client's name in the list. Hovering over the padlock shows Hidden from other staff.
To reverse it, open the same actions menu and select Unhide client. The message Client visible to all staff confirms the change.
From the client's own page
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Open the client.
At the top right of the client's page, select Hide from other staff.
The client's name now carries a Hidden from other staff badge, and the button changes to Unhide. Selecting Unhide makes the client visible to all staff again.
The Hide from other staff button only appears on the client's page if you are assigned to that client or you are an organisation Owner.
Hide one case
You can hide a single case while the client themselves stays visible to colleagues. This is useful when one piece of work is sensitive but the rest of the client's record does not need to be restricted.
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Open the client.
Select the client's Cases tab.
On the case you want to hide, select the case actions button (⋯).
Select Hide this case.
The confirmation message Case hidden from other staff appears and the case carries a Hidden badge.
Colleagues can still see the client's profile and the client's other cases. Only that case — and everything linked to it, such as its records, messages, tasks, wellbeing trackers and forms — disappears for them.
To reverse it, open the same case actions menu and select Unhide this case. The message Case visible to all staff confirms the change.
The Hide this case option only appears if you are assigned to that specific case or you are an organisation Owner.
Hide your whole caseload
If you want every client currently assigned to you hidden in one go:
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Select Caseload privacy at the top of the page.
The dialog explains: Hidden clients are only visible to the staff assigned to them and to organisation Owners. It also shows a summary such as You are assigned to 24 clients; 3 of them are currently hidden.
Select Hide my whole caseload.
In the confirmation dialog Hide your whole caseload?, read the warning — Every client currently assigned to you will be hidden from other staff (except organisation Owners and staff also assigned to them). — and select Hide caseload, or Cancel to stop.
A message such as Caseload hidden confirms the change and tells you how many clients were updated.
To reverse it, reopen Caseload privacy, select Unhide my caseload, and confirm at Unhide your caseload? — Every client currently assigned to you will become visible to all staff again. — by selecting Unhide caseload. The message Caseload unhidden confirms it.
This action only ever covers the clients assigned to you. It does not touch anyone else's caseload.
Review everything you have hidden (the Hidden tab)
Hiding is easy to do and easy to forget, so Client cases has a Hidden tab that gathers hidden clients in one place. It is the quickest way to check what is currently hidden after a sensitive period has passed.
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Select the Hidden tab, alongside My cases, All cases and Triage.
The tab shows only hidden clients, each with the padlock next to their name. A number badge on the tab itself tells you how many there are, so you can see at a glance whether anything is still hidden without opening the tab.
What you see there follows exactly the same rule as everywhere else:
If you are a member of staff, the tab lists the hidden clients you are assigned to. Clients hidden by colleagues you are not assigned to are simply absent — they are not shown as "no access", because that would give away that they exist.
If you are an organisation Owner, the tab lists every hidden client in the organisation, so you can review caseload privacy across the whole team.
If nothing is hidden, the tab says No hidden clients and the number badge disappears.
Search, filters and sorting all work on this tab exactly as they do on My cases and All cases, so you can narrow a long list further.
Unhide from the Hidden tab
On the Hidden tab, find the client's row.
Select the actions button (⋯) at the end of the row.
Select Unhide client.
The message Client visible to all staff confirms it, and the row disappears from the Hidden tab straight away — because it is no longer hidden. The tab's number badge drops by one. The client is still there on My cases and All cases as normal.
The Caseload privacy dialog also points here: under the summary of how many of your clients are hidden, it reminds you to open the Hidden tab to see which ones.
Hidden cases are not listed on this tab. It covers hidden clients only. To find a hidden case, open the client and look at their Cases tab, where a hidden case carries a Hidden badge.
Auto-hide new clients on my caseload
In the same Caseload privacy dialog there is a tick box: Auto-hide new clients on my caseload, described as Clients assigned to you in future are hidden from other staff automatically.
Points to understand before you switch it on:
It is your personal setting. It belongs to you, not to your organisation, and it does not change anything for your colleagues.
It is forward-looking only. It hides clients who are assigned to you from that point on. It does not retrospectively hide anyone already on your caseload — use Hide my whole caseload for those.
It stays on until you turn it off. Selecting the tick box saves straight away and shows Preference saved.
What actually changes when a client is hidden
For colleagues who are not assigned and are not Owners, the client simply is not there. In everyday terms, they drop out of:
client lists and client search, including the All tab on Client cases
the messages inbox, message previews and unread counts
messenger groups, group member lists and bulk outreach sends
the calendar's client picker and any calendar event linked to that client
tasks linked to that client or case, including "today's actions"
referrals, services, wellbeing trackers, concerns and forms linked to them
any report, download or export that lists identifiable client rows
Organisation-level totals and charts on the dashboard still include hidden clients. A count on its own does not identify anybody, so the numbers stay accurate while the identifiable rows behind them disappear.
Limits to be aware of
Caseload privacy is a visibility control, not a security lock or a deletion. Please read these before relying on it:
Only assigned staff or organisation Owners can hide or unhide a client or a case. Owners can always see hidden records.
Hiding is not deleting. The client and all their history are untouched; only who can see them in Case Management changes.
It does not stop messages going out. Reminders, wellbeing links, booking confirmations and anything else already scheduled still reach the client as normal.
It is not retrospective. It cannot remove information a colleague has already seen, already downloaded or already exported, and it does not recall anything already sent.
It is a Case Management view control. The underlying client record itself is unchanged, and information already held elsewhere in Joy or in your clinical system is not affected.
Colleagues are told the record does not exist, rather than that they lack permission. This is deliberate: if the app said "you do not have access to this client", the existence of a hidden client could be worked out from the message alone.
Hide and unhide actions are recorded in your organisation's access log, alongside other access events.
Troubleshooting
A colleague sees fewer clients than I do. That is expected if some of your clients are hidden. Hidden clients are counted in organisation totals but do not appear in lists, search or exports for anyone who is not assigned to them or an Owner.
A colleague sees fewer cases than I do on the same client. One or more of that client's cases is hidden. The client stays visible; the hidden case and everything linked to it does not.
A group or bulk send reached fewer people than expected. Hidden clients are skipped for staff who cannot see them, and they are left out of member lists and pickers too.
I cannot find the hide option. The Hide from other staff button on a client's page, and Hide this case in a case's actions menu, only appear when you are assigned to that client or case, or you are an organisation Owner. If you try to hide a client you are not assigned to, the change is refused and you see Could not update visibility; for a case, Could not update case visibility. Ask an organisation Owner, or ask to be assigned to the client or case.
A client looks like they have no cases. If every one of their cases is hidden from you, the client still appears but their cases do not, and their status may show as unknown. A colleague who is assigned to those cases, or an organisation Owner, can confirm.
I cannot remember which clients I hid. Open Client cases and select the Hidden tab. It lists every hidden client you are allowed to see, and you can unhide them from the row's actions menu.
The Hidden tab looks empty but a colleague says a client is hidden. You are not assigned to that client, so it stays out of your view. Ask to be assigned, or ask an organisation Owner, who can see every hidden client in the organisation.
I hid the wrong client. Nothing is lost. Open the client and select Unhide, use the actions menu on the client cases list and select Unhide client, or find them on the Hidden tab.