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152
The co-operation of parents, teachers, school attendance officers and voluntary
bodies and the medical service in Barking is very high, and in expressing once
again my thanks to these members I cannot speak too highly of their valued service.
It is such a liaison between the departments that makes for an efficient health
service.
The attendance of parents with their children at school medical inspections,
clinics, etc., still continues to be satisfactory and I can only offer my thanks to
these parents for the increasing interest they show in their children.
School attendance officers as such do not exist, but are investigation officers,
as stated in my previous Report. With their co-operation it is possible to eliminate
difficulties arising from altered home circumstances.
Finally I would mention the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children and other voluntary bodies which work actively in the above connection.

Although co-operation in Barking itself is high it is difficult to eliminate some
of the barriers which must arise between Local Authorities on the one hand and
the large London hospitals on the other hand. A systematic and uniform
arrangement of correspondence between the large London hospitals would be a
distinct improvement, because some difficulty does arise when patients are referred
from hospital to hospital and when there is no interchange of notes.
(13) BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
The following table shows the number of children who have attended at the
Faircross Special School—in the Open-Air, Physically Defective and Mentally
Defective Sections—and, in addition, in other parts of the report will be found
figures as to how many children have been admitted to the Brookfield Orthopaedic
Hospital and elsewhere for orthopaedic conditions:—