James Winterbottom

Since 2010, James has been part of the senior leadership team at Wigan, working alongside senior politicians, partners and the community as they developed and implemented the Wigan Deal to reimagine public services and develop a new relationship with residents and business.

Between 2015 and 2020, James was Director of Children’s Services in Wigan and led a transformation of these services in line with the principles of the Wigan Deal with the service receiving a ‘GOOD’ Ofsted judgement in 2017 and a highly positive SEND inspection by Ofsted and the CQC in 2018.

James has been instrumental in fostering a culture of creativity and innovation and as Director of Strategy and Innovation is a key member of the leadership team developing the next era of public service reform in Wigan. Alongside responsibilities for strategy and policy, James is the director for digital, data and technology services and following his work leading the in-sourcing of leisure and well-being services back into the council in 2021 now also leads that service area from his directorate alongside Culture and Events.