What did the project do?

The project employed an innovative approach to participation which successfully brought together participants from central, devolved and local governments, academic and voluntary organisations and, critically, community members with personal experience of the policy under review either as service users, operational staff or as relatives or carers of those it was trying to help.

BTPG set out to identify how national policies were being implemented at the local level and whether gaps existed between the stated intentions of national policies and the outcomes delivered at the local level. We sought to understand the gaps between the top (policy making) and the bottom (policy implementation) of the policy process but community members made it clear that we also needed to consider ‘bottom-up gaps’, that is needs identified by the community member that are not being addressed by the policy.

Key findings from the project contribute to the improved implementation of policies to combat poverty and social exclusion but also make a specific contribution to the development of participatory methods of evaluating locally implemented policies that fall within the policy priority areas of the United Kingdom National Action Plan on Social Inclusion, 2006 – 2008.

Please download the reports for more information about what we did, what we were told, and what the key findings and recommendations are.