The development of social inclusion policies and strategies most often occurs at the national level, in UK Government Departments and in the devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. However delivery must occur locally and as such implementation of government policy will usually be delivered by local or regional authorities. Delivery will often require the involvement of a number of organizations across the public, private and voluntary sectors.

The distance between policy formation and implementation has lead to a concern with what some refer to as the 'implementation gap', and that policies developed at the 'national level' do not always have the intended impact because of the lack of engagement of important people at the local level.

There is a desire to bring the voice of local people and local organisations into the policy process so that new policies benefit from the analysis and critique of those who have deep knowledge and experience of local policy implementation.