The article includes considerations and author’s proposals concerning the regional dimension of social policy. This aspect of social policy has not been investigated widely so far. The scope of regionalism and its forms are linked with the dominant social doctrine in a given country. They reflected in the ratio of territorial self-governments’ own incomes against those of the state budget, and in the institutional freedom they have in the area of benefit structuring, that is in decentralization. In the case of Poland, the political changes connected with the doctrinal ones hamper the development of regional social policy. This may have a negative impact on the coordination and implementation of social policy actions undertaken on different government levels and on the adjustment of social benefits to the needs of a region’s residents.