Case Studies
Designing a Scalable Digital Foundation for Inclusive Growth
Liberty Academy Trust, a growing SEND multi-academy trust, needed more than an intranet. It required a secure, structured Microsoft 365 environment that could support inclusion, strengthen governance and scale with the organisation.
By establishing a carefully designed digital architecture and embedding a trust-wide Digital Literacy Programme, Liberty has created a consistent, collaborative and governance-ready environment that underpins both day-to-day operations and long-term growth.
The Context
Liberty Academy Trust supports autistic children and young people across a geographically dispersed group of specialist schools. Each setting brought its own systems, practices and challenges, alongside significant responsibilities around safeguarding, compliance and personalised support.
As the trust began to grow, leadership recognised that consistency could not be left to develop organically. Without structure, there was a risk of fragmentation, duplication and increasing complexity.
The trust needed a digital environment that would hold together as it scaled, supporting both operational clarity and its inclusive educational ethos.
"Pretty much since our inception as a multi-academy trust, you’ve been supporting us to deliver our intranet and our communication and collaboration spaces. It was one of the key things that I brought in from day one."
-Lisa Thompson, Head of Digital, Data and Technology, Liberty Academy Trust
The Challenge
A key risk for any growing multi-academy trust is the replication of legacy ways of working in a new environment.
Without intentional design, cloud platforms can quickly become fragmented, with inconsistent structures, unclear ownership and duplicated information. For a geographically dispersed SEND trust, this would have made collaboration more difficult and governance harder to maintain.
At the same time, adopting Microsoft 365 at scale presented an additional challenge: ensuring that staff with varying levels of digital confidence could use the platform effectively.
The Approach
From its earliest stages, Liberty Academy Trust partnered with Cloud Design Box to design a structured Microsoft 365 environment built on SharePoint and Teams.
This included clearly defined site structures, carefully managed permissions and distinct collaboration spaces, ensuring that the environment was engineered rather than improvised.
Alongside this, the trust introduced a structured Digital Literacy Programme to support adoption. Combining live training with on-demand resources, the programme enabled staff to build confidence at their own pace and embed new ways of working over time.
Governance was further strengthened through structured SharePoint architecture and the use of Power Automate to manage policy processes and document control.
The Impact
The result has been a consistent and scalable digital operating model across the trust.
Staff now collaborate within shared digital spaces, with a single source of truth for documents and information. Confidence has increased across teams, supported by structured training and ongoing support.
Governance and compliance have been strengthened through controlled environments, clearer permissions and automated policy management processes. At the same time, the trust is moving towards a cloud-first, serverless model, reducing infrastructure overhead and supporting sustainability.
With strong foundations in place, Liberty is now able to explore emerging technologies such as AI in a measured and responsible way, building on a secure and well-structured environment.
What began as an infrastructure decision has evolved into a cohesive digital architecture that supports inclusion, collaboration and long-term growth.
