If your minibuses, buses or wheelchair accessible vehicles are fitted with Unwin retractors, floor anchors and occupant restraints, your drivers and escorts need to use them correctly every time — under pressure, in bad weather, with a passenger waiting.
Accessible Ltd delivers Unwin wheelchair tie-down and occupant restraint training on site, at your depot, school or care home, anywhere in the UK.
You may hear this equipment called Unwin clamps, Unwin retractors, Unwin tie-downs or Unwin restraints — depending on who is speaking, they usually mean the same family of kit: the retractors that anchor the wheelchair to the floor, the track and floor anchors they clip into, and the lap and diagonal belt that restrains the passenger.
Unwin Safety Systems has been designing wheelchair restraint equipment for around 60 years, with manufacturing and testing based in Somerset. Since 2019, Unwin has been part of the BraunAbility group alongside Autoadapt.
That matters for your training. Accessible Ltd holds manufacturer approval from BraunAbility, the group Unwin belongs to, as well as from Koller Engineering, NMI Safety Systems, Q’Straint, AMF Bruns, PLS Passenger Lift Services and Ratcliff Palfinger.
Unwin tests its tie-down and occupant restraint products to ISO 10542, the international standard for wheelchair tiedown and occupant restraint systems, at 100kg. That is around 15% above what the standard itself requires.
Equipment tested to that level only performs to that level if it is used correctly. A correctly rated retractor clipped to a worn anchor, or a lap belt routed across the abdomen instead of the pelvis, will not protect anyone regardless of its test certificate. Closing the gap between what the equipment can do and how it is used in service is the entire point of this training.
Under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, employers must provide the information, instruction and training their staff need to work safely. For any organisation transporting wheelchair users, that includes genuine competence with the restraint system actually fitted to the vehicle.
Equipment regulations add to this. LOLER requires a thorough examination of passenger lifting equipment every six months, and PUWER Regulations 5 and 6 require work equipment to be maintained in good repair and inspected at suitable intervals.
We are independent. We are not tied to a single manufacturer, so we train your staff on the equipment your vehicles actually carry — Unwin on one vehicle and Koller or Q’Straint on the next, if that is your fleet.
We come to you, anywhere in the UK, and we train on your own vehicles with your own equipment. We are an approved supplier to the NHS, MOD, police forces, patient transport services, county councils, care homes, schools and colleges.
Yes. Few fleets run a single generation of equipment, so we cover legacy Unwin systems alongside the current range.
Yes, and it is the main reason organisations come to us. If your vehicles carry a mix of Unwin, Koller, Q’Straint and BraunAbility equipment, one course can cover all of it.
It depends on group size and how many different systems your fleet runs. Call 01282 504455 and we will scope it honestly.
We recommend it. Skills fade, staff change and equipment gets replaced. Regular refreshers keep competence current and evidence your duty of care.
Unwin is a trade name of Unwin Safety Systems, part of the BraunAbility group. Accessible Ltd is an independent training provider. We are not Unwin, and we do not sell or supply their equipment — we train the people who use it, and we hold manufacturer approval from BraunAbility, the group Unwin belongs to.
If your fleet is mixed, these may be useful too:
Tell us what your fleet runs and how many staff need training. We come to you, anywhere in the UK.
Contact us
