Assignment happens on a case, not on the client as a whole. A client can have several cases, and each case has its own assigned staff, so the person supporting someone with housing does not have to be the person supporting them with benefits.
A case can have more than one assigned staff member, and a case can have none at all.
Assign a case to yourself
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Find the client's case. Use the All cases tab if the case is not yours yet.
Select the actions button (⋯) at the end of the row and choose Edit case.
In the Edit case window, look at Assigned staff. If nobody is assigned it reads Unassigned.
Select Assign to me. Your name appears as a badge under Assigned staff.
Select Save.
Assign to me only appears when you are not already assigned to that case. Once your name is there, the button disappears.
Assign or add colleagues
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Find the client's case, select the actions button (⋯) and choose Edit case.
Under Assigned staff, select Add or remove staff.
Use Search staff... to narrow the list, then tick each colleague you want on the case. You can tick more than one.
Close the list and check the badges under Assigned staff are the people you expect.
Select Save.
Adding a colleague does not remove you. If you want the case handed over rather than shared, add them and remove yourself in the same edit.
Change or remove an assignee
In the same Edit case window:
To remove someone, select the ✕ on their badge under Assigned staff.
To swap one person for another, remove the first badge and tick the new person under Add or remove staff.
To leave the case with nobody on it, remove every badge until it reads Unassigned.
Nothing is applied until you select Save. Selecting Cancel leaves the assignment exactly as it was.
The quicker route from the client's page
If you are already looking at the client:
Open the client from Client cases.
Select the client's Cases tab.
On the case, select the staff button — it shows the current assignees, or Assign staff when there are none.
Under Staff on this case, tick or untick the people you need.
This picker saves each tick straight away; there is no Save button and no confirmation step, so check you are on the right case first.
A brand new case can be assigned as you create it: Add case (or New case on the client's Cases tab) has the same Assigned staff section, and the people you pick are assigned as soon as the case is created.
What happens after you assign
The Staff column updates. On Client cases, the Staff column lists everyone assigned to that case. A case with nobody assigned shows a dash (—). You can also sort the list by Staff.
The assignee is notified. Each newly assigned colleague gets an in-app notification reading New client assigned to you: [client name], linking to the client. You are not notified about cases you assign to yourself.
The case joins their caseload. It appears on their My cases tab, and in the caseload figures and reports that count assigned work.
Finding your own or a colleague's caseload
My cases on Client cases shows only the cases you are assigned to. All cases shows everything in your organisation that you are allowed to see.
To look at somebody else's caseload, stay on All cases, select Filters, open the Staff member group, tick the colleague (or several), and select Apply. Reset clears it again.
Clients arriving through Triage
A client still sitting in the Triage tab does not have a case yet, so there is nothing to assign. Use the Allocate action on their row instead: that creates the case and lets you pick the staff for it in one step. There is a separate guide on the triage queue and allocating a patient to a caseload.
Assignment and caseload privacy
Assignment is what caseload privacy is built on. A hidden client or a hidden case is visible only to the staff assigned to it and to organisation Owners, so:
assigning a colleague to a hidden client or case is what gives them access to it, and
removing someone from a hidden case takes that access away.
If a colleague cannot find a client you can see, the client or the case may be hidden and they may not be assigned. See the guide on hiding a client, a case or your whole caseload.
Troubleshooting
There is no Edit case option in the actions menu. That client has no case yet — the menu only offers Edit client. Create a case with Add case, or use Allocate if they are still in the Triage queue.
A colleague is missing from the staff list. The picker lists the staff in your organisation who have not been removed. If someone is missing, they need to be added as a staff member first.
The case saved but the staff did not. If assignment fails while the rest of the case saves, you see a message telling you the case details were saved but updating assigned staff failed. Reopen Edit case and set the assignees again.
I assigned the wrong person. Reopen Edit case, select the ✕ on their badge, and Save. The notification they already received is not withdrawn, so it is worth telling them.