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Children's Officer. These children were boarded out into foster homes.
Close liaison continued to be maintained between the departments
at all levels and every effort was made to give these children the benefit
of our combined knowledge and experience.
VACCINATION AND IMMUNISATION
Since the formation of the London Borough of Barking in 1965 it has
been possible to compare the performance of our immunisation programmes
with the national averages contained in the annual reports of the Chief
Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health.

The immunisation figures against infectious disease contained in this
Annual Report should be viewed against the background of the new Schedule
of Vaccination and Immunisation which was introduced on the recommendation
of the Standing Medical Advisory Committee for the Central Health Services
Council in 1968.
This has resulted in a dislocation in the continuity of the immunisation
statistics and it will be noted that there is an apparent decrease in the
number of children born in 1968 and 1969 who received their primary
immunisation and their booster doses. This fall is in fact more apparent
than real in that at the end of the year there were a large number of
children who had completed a part of their schedule of immunisation and
were awaiting further doses of vaccine at the time these figures were
obtained and it will be at least a further year before any real evaluation
can be made of the effect of the new Schedule on the total number of children
who are brought forward for immunisation against infectious diseases.
A factor of some concern to my Department is the difficulty in obtaining
adequate acceptance of the final dose of tetanus and poliomyelitis vaccine
which children should receive prior to leaving school.
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