The presented paper is an attempt to as ses how the principles of subsidiarity and decentralization in the form of local partnership are realized in the sphere of social policy. It contents the review of literature, legislation, reports from the research and other accessible sources of knowledge (information). It presents the origin and the evolution of the ideas of subsidiarity and decentralization of social policy, the evolution of public governance concepts, partnership and co-governance as a new direction of local social policy. The paper presents conclusions from the analyses of contents of national strategies, which define methods of public policies realization in Poland. As to the empirical aspects it presents the results of the research project „The equalization of chances of persons over 50 years of age at the labour market”. The researched activisation of persons over 50 proves, that local institutions and organizations seldom use common projects (apart from the cooperation which is legally regulated/bound). Cooperation has mostly an informal and casual character. It includes the exchange of information, seldom refers to formally defined principles and forms of cooperation, seldom sets up a separate consortium for the realization of common undertakings. A key conclusion from the analysis is the lack of partnership which would allow for the realization of postulated participative forms of management, which in turn effectively makes the realization of local social policy more difficult.