Previous studies in adults have shown an increased prevalence of psychiatric hospital admissions from Black Africans compared with Whites. Studies with adolescents have similarly shown that African-Caribbean’s are significantly more likely to sustain a diagnosis of psychosis than White adolescents. This study sets out to determine the number and proportion of patients admitted to the Gardener Unit from ethnic minority populations and to compare these values with national norms and data from other adolescent units, secure and non-secure, with a view to informing the implementation of the children’s National Service Framework. It focused on the proportion of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds in a medium secure adolescent forensic unit. The study sample consisted of 61 patients admitted to the Gardener Unit between April 1995 and March 2002. The main finding of the study was consistent with previous studies with adults in psychiatric units, in that an overrepresentation of young people from ethnic minorities was found among unit admissions compared with the general population. The study confirms the extent of likely need in specialist medium secure hospital services for sensitivity to specific requirements for young people from ethnic minorities, both the high overall proportion of young people from ethnic minorities using the national adolescent medium security hospital service, and the range of ethnic diversity found in this group. Table, references