Confidential or Sensitive Cases

Purpose

A designated worker is assigned the responsibility of handling confidential cases that involve Santa Clara County employees to:

  • Ensure that recipients who are county employees receive the appropriate benefits.
  • Avoid impropriety, favoritism, or a conflict of interest in the handling of assistance records.
  • More easily control and ensure confidentiality of records.

 

District Office Managers have the discretion to designate confidential and sensitive cases. 

District Offices

Confidential cases are maintained at Continuing Benefit Services (CBS), South County (SC), General Assistance (GA), Benefits Service Center (BSC), North County (NC), and Foster Care (FC).

Categories

There are three categories of cases that require special assignments:

  • Confidential cases,
  • Sensitive cases, and
  • Other cases.

Confidential Cases

Confidential cases may include:

  • All Social Services Agency (SSA) employees, including CWES clients placed at SSA work sites, or other CWES clients such as Unclassified Workers placed at SSA.
  • Close relatives and significant friends who reside with the SSA employee.

For system entries, refer to Chewable Byte CB 2023-50: How To Set A Case As Confidential In CalSAWS and CB 2023-53: How To Enter Or Remove A Confidential Indicator In MEDS.

 

Also see Confidential or Sensitive Cases topic in the Clerical Handbook.

Sensitive Cases

Sensitive cases may include all non-SSA county employees, relatives, and significant friends who do NOT reside with the SSA employee.

Other Cases

Other cases include individual situations that require special handling (a matter of reasonable judgment).

Example Example Prior SSA employee is living in the home of the applicant/recipient. 

Recognition of Known Clients

Often times, certified bi-lingual workers may live in communities where their second language is common. In these communities, workers may see clients while shopping in the local market, riding on public transportation, eating in a nearby restaurant etc. As long as the worker is not a close friend or a significant part of the client’s life (i.e. communicating regularly or visiting each other socially) there is no conflict of interest and no need to enter a special indicator in the case. The case may be assigned to the worker.

If the worker is unsure, it is best to notify the unit supervisor and discuss their concerns with the supervisor. The supervisor will make a decision based on the information available.

Client Privacy

It’s important to maintain the client’s privacy at all times. This means not going out of your way to greet the client or mention anything about their case or how you know them if encountered outside of the SSA office. If the client approaches you and asks a case-related question, it is best to ask them to contact you during business hours.

 

Intake Policy for Confidential Cases

An application for public assistance by an SSA employee, an employee's relative, or a close friend is NEVER to be processed in the office in which the employee works or by the applicant’s relative or close friend. If identified as a confidential case early in the application process, every effort is to be made to transfer the application to another office for assignment and processing via the OMC.

Once aid is established and the case is ready for transfer, the assigned intake worker's supervisor is to confer with the supervisor of the Confidential caseload to discuss transfer arrangements. When there is a disagreement about whether a case requires special handling, the situation must be referred through the supervisor to their SSPM.

The supervisor of the Continuing Confidential caseload must make every effort whenever possible to accept the Confidential Case. However, if all efforts fail and the supervisor of the primary Continuing Confidential caseload indicates there is no room for assignment, the intake supervisor MUST contact the supervisor of another confidential caseload and have the case assigned to their caseload.

 

Note: It is the supervisor’s responsibility to reassign cases to make room for the special assignment.

 

Continuing Policy For Confidential Cases

When a continuing EW identifies a case that appears to fall under one of these categories, they must discuss the case with their immediate supervisor and determine what actions need to be taken to transfer the case.

Case Determination

All cases requiring special handling are assigned to a Confidential caseload. The following chart must be used when transferring a confidential or sensitive case:

CLIENT STATUS INTAKE CASE CONTINUING CASE STATUS
Non - SSA Santa Clara County Employee Any convenient office May be assigned to any EW III Sensitive
CWES Requests include SSA Santa Clara County Employee, including CWES clients placed at SSA, and DV clients. Any office except where the employee works Must be assigned to the confidential caseload Confidential
SSA relative or significant friend who is NOT living with the SSA Employee Any office except where the employee works May be assigned to any EW III in any office except where the employee works Sensitive
SSA relative or significant friend living with the SSA employee Any office except where the employee works Must be assigned to the confidential caseload Confidential

Transfer Procedures for Confidential or Sensitive Cases

When transferring a case to a confidential caseload:

WHO ACTION
EW
  • Confirms that the CalSAWS Journal Detail page is clearly documented with the reason the case meets the confidential or sensitive case criteria.
  • Submits the case to the EW Supervisor.
EW Supervisor
  • Reviews the case to determine if the case meets the confidential or sensitive case criteria.
  • If the case meets the criteria, submits it to the OMC.
OMC
  • Transfers case to the confidential caseload number of the receiving office.

For system entries, refer to Chewable Byte CB 2023-50: How To Set A Case As Confidential In CalSAWS and CB 2023-53: How To Enter Or Remove A Confidential Indicator In MEDS.