“Here at Basingstoke College of Technology, we were exploring how AI could support our teachers. Something that could help them with assessment and feedback. Not to replace them, but take away some of the repetitive work. When we found out there was funding available, it certainly helped reduce the level of risk. It made it a bit less of a gamble and helped push the project along.” Those were the reflections of Greg Devereux-Cooke, Head of Data & Funding at Basingstoke College of Technology, speaking at a recent senior leadership event hosted by Perform Partners.

For many public sector leaders, Greg’s words will ring true. Modernisation is relentless, and so is the demand to deliver it on a budget that makes every pound work harder.

The funding that Greg is referring to is the One Government Value Agreement. OGVA is a collaborative agreement between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Crown Commercial Service (CCS) that treats UK public sector organisations as a single buyer. That unified approach allows those organisations, from local authorities and education institutions to central government departments, to benefit from significantly discounted cloud service rates, access to cloud credits, training programmes, and support for innovation projects. As a result, teams can modernise infrastructure, accelerate cloud adoption, and explore technologies such as generative AI or legacy migrations, while worrying less about cost and risk.

Recently, together with AWS, we explored how OGVA can help public sector teams ease these pressures. We brought those key insights together in our session Stretching Public Sector Budgets: Cost Savings for IT Leaders. Below are the lessons senior leaders across the public sector should be paying attention to today.

What does OGVA actually deliver in practice?

Leaders working in the public sector understand the challenge: sprawling and often outdated estates, tight budgets that rarely stretch far enough, and high levels of scrutiny over every decision.

Modernising is about more than just upgrading technology. Teams are navigating legacy systems, fragmented data, procurement constraints and the pressure to demonstrate value quickly. The problem is that these competing demands make it incredibly difficult to free up the time, funding, and headspace needed to invest in the long-term capabilities that will actually drive improvement.

Mike Beaven, Executive Lead for UK Public Sector at AWS, one of the key figures behind the UK Government’s early digital transformation at GDS, commented:

“We recognise we could all sit here glibly and say, ‘Oh, we need to transform in the public sector.’ But we also recognise it’s not easy to do. I’m an ex-civil servant myself, I spent four years in the Cabinet Office working in GDS across 12 departments, and it’s a tough place to make change land and make change stick. So, we think this is a good mechanism to overcome barriers.”

The three-year agreement between AWS and the Crown Commercial Service gives public sector teams access to consistent pricing, training, funding, and support under a single framework. It’s built on a simple idea: the public sector is stronger when it buys as one. By pooling demand, OGVA unlocks collective buying power and ensures consistency across departments, councils and education providers.

There are two clear routes in:

• Scaler, designed for early exploration, offers up to $25,000 in AWS credits, five training licences, and a ProServe workshop to safely test a proof of concept, with no spend commitment, and
• Prime, for organisations ready to scale, provides up to $250,000 in outcome-based credits, larger discounts, 25 training licences with 1:1 match funding, cost and security reviews, and a three-year plan to grow what works.

Shortages in cloud expertise and digital skills are another chronic challenge for the public sector. Government IT teams often lack enough cloud architects, engineers, and project managers to plan and execute migrations at scale. The training that comes with OGVA gives teams the time and space to build confidence, develop new skills and keep that knowledge within their organisation.

It also helps with one of the biggest sticking points: procurement. Legacy procurement practices and navigating procurement frameworks have become an even bigger barrier to cloud adoption than security concerns in recent years. In practice, each agency often runs its own tender: for example, all 320 English councils “largely negotiate their own technology agreements”, often independently of central frameworks. Because OGVA is already approved through government channels, teams can move ahead without months of paperwork or repeated sign-offs. It also unlocks national buying power: OGVA is a Crown Commercial Service memorandum of understanding with AWS that aggregates demand across departments and councils to secure preferential pricing and discounts, so buyers don’t need to negotiate alone to get value.

How to make the most out of public sector funding and discounts?

With AWS supporting organisations across the UK through the OGVA funding programme, their team has developed a strong understanding of what actually enables public sector organisations to maximise the value of the scheme. Mike’s been close to a lot of OGVA projects and has spent a lot of time talking with teams and senior leaders about what actually helps. From that experience, he shares a few things he’s learned about how to make OGVA work well in real life.

Start small and prove value early
The best results don’t come from rushing in. They come from trying things out properly. OGVA gives teams the space to test ideas without the pressure of getting everything perfect the first time. As Mike put it, “One good experiment that proves its value is worth far more than a handful of half-finished pilots.” He talked about how starting small helps build belief too: “You can go back to your leaders and say, ‘We’ve done it and here’s the proof that it works.’” That kind of evidence makes change stick.

Tidy the estate before scaling
Before moving to the bigger commitments of Prime, Mike’s advice is simple: sort what you’ve already got. “Switch off what you don’t use, fix what’s worth keeping, and make sure your plan is based on what actually works,” he said. “There’s no sense in scaling waste.” Cleaning things up first means you get the full benefit later, not just bigger bills for things you didn’t need.

Invest in your people, not just your tech
It all comes back down to skills. OGVA includes access to free training and learning licences, and he sees that as one of its biggest strengths. “When people understand the tech, they stay longer, they’re more confident, and they come up with better ideas,” Mike said. It’s how you keep progress going, not just kick off a project.

Use OGVA to gather proof, not just savings
The value of OGVA isn’t just in the funding or discounts, it’s in what it lets you prove. “It’s a way to try things safely, collect evidence, and show that change really can work,” according to Mike. That kind of proof turns cautious ideas into real action.

Can OGVA really help teachers get their evenings and weekends back?

OGVA goes beyond cloud as educational institutions are using it to explore AI in support of teaching. Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) recently benefitted from funding to explore a very human goal: to alleviate teachers’ workload, making more room for more coaching and supporting students. Greg Devereux-Cooke at Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT), shares what OGVA meant for his team and why it helped them move faster, with less risk.

That breathing space let his team test intensively, or, as he put it, “we could hammer the system”, until they knew it was robust enough to roll out to teachers for their testing.

Greg’s story sits alongside that of his colleague Scott Hayden, Head of Teaching, Learning and Digital at BCoT, who reflects on how Perform Partners and Ingram Micro guided the college through applying for OGVA funding:

“The process was a seamless one for us as it was managed by our partners at Perform Partners and Ingram Micro. It helped us through the AWS Skills Builder subscription to help us get further along more rapid speed than I had envisioned. We had the freedom to rigorously test and explore the system without having to worry about financial constraints. This helped us because we could use the funding in the first year and work through any issues and ensure the system is robust and rigorous and effective. We could remain focused on the project’s vision and requirements. We could be confident in giving it to our teachers to test at a quicker speed because of that funding.”

Watch Scott’s full interview below:

Why does this matter right now?

Budgets are tight while expectations are growing. Every digital initiative has to stand up to scrutiny. This is unlikely to change in the next 15-18 months.

Government data shows that digital maturity still leaves more to be desired. The State of Digital Government Review (published January 2025) concludes that, although the public sector has “enormous digital resources,” progress has been “uneven” over the last 15 years and “not fast or systemic enough.” It highlights fragmentation across organisations, under-digitisation of many services, heavy reliance on legacy systems, siloed data, underfunding of maintenance and system resilience, lack of consistent leadership or governance, skills/talent shortages and sub-optimal procurement.

As a result, many services remain only partially digitised, data and cloud adoption is uneven (central vs local/NHS/police), and many of the benefits of digital (efficiency, automation, data-driven innovation) remain under-realised.

So while “cloud everywhere” is an ambition, the reality is more complex. OGVA offers something rare in that environment: a funded, governed way to learn. It helps teams modernise with confidence, keep control of risk, and grow capability that lasts.

Unlock all learnings for public sector senior leaders…

As an organisation, how can I access OGVA funding? How does this support our day-to-day delivery? How can teams get approvals through in record time? What helps them keep momentum once the first project lands? Hear all the honest stories about the small decisions that make a big difference: when to involve finance, how to balance governance with speed, and what “safe innovation” looks like in practice.

Watch the full discussion below to hear these insights first-hand…straight from the teams already putting OGVA to work.