A YOUTH education programme in Newton Abbot – run for youngsters at risk of being excluded from mainstream schooling – is dramatically changing the way it operates.

Now parents fear their children, who get specialist support and teaching in core subjects and behavioural and social skills, will be left to fend for themselves back in the town's secondary schools.

The Chances programme has been running for more than ten years at The Junction for students in Years 7 to 11.

A further programme called Extended Chances for