Client details change: people move, change their phone number, register with a different GP surgery, or were entered in a hurry and need correcting. All of that is edited from the client's Profile tab.
Edit the client's details
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Open the client, then select their Profile tab.
Select Edit at the top right. Every editable field on the tab turns into a box or a dropdown at once.
Change what you need to. The fields are grouped into cards:
Personal details — Title, First name, Last name, Known as, Date of birth, Gender, Ethnicity, NHS number.
Address and GP — Address line 1, Address line 2, City, Postcode, GP surgery.
Circumstances — Disability, Disability status, Carer status, Employment, Living arrangement, Accommodation, Marital status, Sexual orientation, Religion.
Select Save. The button reads Saving... while it works.
Cancel drops every change on the tab and puts the fields back as they were.
Three details are required: First name, Last name and Date of birth. If you clear any of them and select Save, nothing is saved and you see Could not save profile, with the reason First name, last name, and date of birth are required.
A field with nothing in it shows a dash (—) when you are not editing; a dropdown with nothing chosen shows Not set, and picking Not set again clears it.
GP surgery is picked from the NHS list of practices rather than typed freely, so the practice's own code is stored alongside the name.
What happens after you save
You see the confirmation Profile updated, the fields go back to read-only, and the client cases list picks up the change.
Changing the GP surgery re-runs the clinical system match. Joy uses the registered practice to work out which of your organisation's clinical systems the client belongs to, so the Clinical system card refreshes itself after the save. If nothing matches you will see No clinical system matches this client's GP surgery or referral. Choose one below if you know which it should be, and you can set it yourself with Link.
Details with their own editors
Some things on the Profile tab are not part of the main Edit, and are changed on the spot instead — they save as soon as you confirm them, without touching Save at the top:
Phone numbers and email addresses
On the Contact details card, Phone numbers and Email addresses are separate lists, and a client can have several of each.
Add opens a row with a box for the number or address and a label dropdown — No label, plus the labels your organisation uses (Mobile and Home for numbers, Personal, Work and Preferred for emails). Select Save on that row.
The pencil icon edits an entry; the bin icon deletes it straight away.
An empty list reads None recorded.
Each list holds up to ten. At ten, Add is greyed out and the list reads Maximum of 10 reached. — delete one you no longer need first.
Next of kin
The Next of kin card has its own Edit, with Title, Relation, First name, Last name, Email, Mobile, Home phone and Notes, and its own Save and Cancel. With nobody recorded it reads No next of kin recorded.
Consent
Consent sits on the Address and GP card as a tick box, showing Consent given or No consent recorded. It applies the moment you tick or untick it — there is no Save and no confirmation step, so be sure before you change it.
Details you cannot edit here
Some values on the Profile tab are shown for information only:
On lists — the lists the client is on. Change it from the list itself.
Clinical system — the linked clinical record, with a line explaining how the link was decided. Use Link or Change on that card rather than editing a field.
Household — managed on its own card.
Case-level information — Case status, triage, assigned staff, referral details and the like belong to the client's cases, not their profile. Edit those from the Cases tab or from Edit case in the actions menu on Client cases.
The quicker route from the list
If you only need to fix a name, a date of birth or an address, you do not have to open the client:
In the Case Management sidebar, open Client cases.
Find the client's row and select the actions button (⋯) at the end of it.
Select Edit client.
The Edit client window covers Title, Gender, First name, Last name, Known as, Date of birth, Ethnicity, NHS number, Address line 1, Address line 2, City, Postcode and GP surgery.
Select Save. You see the confirmation Client updated.
Save stays greyed out until both First name and Last name have something in them. Cancel closes the window and changes nothing.
This window does not include contact numbers and emails, next of kin, consent or the Circumstances fields — those are only on the Profile tab.
Related things you might be looking for
Adding somebody who is not in Joy yet — see the guide on adding a client manually.
Filling the details in from the NHS Spine as you add them — see the guide on autofilling a client's details from the Spine.
The same person entered twice — do not edit one into the other. See the guide on merging client profiles.
Troubleshooting
I see "Could not save profile". Nothing was saved. The most common reason is a cleared required field, and the message says which. Put the value back and select Save again.
I see "Could not update client" from the Edit client window. Nothing was saved there either. Close and reopen the window, then try again.
My change is not showing on the client cases list. The list refreshes after a successful save. If the change is not there, check you saw Profile updated — an edit left open, or one that was cancelled, saves nothing.
A phone number or email will not add. Check the entry is not empty and that the list is not already at ten. Any other failure shows a message beginning Could not add phone number or Could not add email address.
The consent tick box changed by accident. Tick or untick it back; the change applies immediately either way. If you see Could not update consent, the change did not save — reload the page to see the current value.