City and Guilds 0039-35 Interwoven Stems and Part Blown Trees: what the handbook says

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. The pages used are the City and Guilds NPTC handbook for the award and the 2026 City and Guilds list. The award sits beside 0039-37, which covers individual windblown trees. The guide on storm work covers the wider storm-response picture.

At a glance

Item	What the official source says
Awarding body	City and Guilds, under the NPTC name
Title	Level 3 Certificate of Competence in Dealing with Interwoven Stems and Part Blown Trees
City and Guilds number	0039-35
Ofqual number	603/7648/X
Guided learning hours	20, with a total qualification time of 24 (handbook version 1.4, February 2025)
Age	16 or over
Grading	Pass only
Status in the 2026 list	Open to certification, registration expiry December 31, 2027, certification expiry December 31, 2030

What the handbook says it covers

The handbook says the award is for people who deal with interwoven stems and part blown trees as part of work in arboriculture, forestry or other industries. Its content list is hazards, risks, controls, emergency planning, legislation and industry good practice for that work.

The unit text, number 306, points to the Forest Industry Safety Accord guidance and the Forestry Commission guide on winching operations. Its safety list includes risk assessment, an agreed emergency procedure, road traffic and signage rules next to public highways, who is responsible for safety, terrain, ground, season and weather, and machinery risk zones. It names the situations where a banks person may be used, near a road or public access, with machinery moving on site, or where communication is poor, and the means of communication: hand signals, two-way radio and reversing cameras. It classes windblown trees as individual, singular, multiple and catastrophic, and it describes multiple windblown trees as two or more trees, possibly interwoven, that can still be reached for cutting. A catastrophic blow is a whole timber crop that cannot be reached and has to be handled by machine. The unit also lists a sequence for the types of windblown tree, starting with part blown or leaning trees and broken trees with hanging tops.

Entry requirements

The handbook says candidates must hold 0039-20, 0039-21 and 0039-33, or equivalent versions, and meet the minimum age of 16. That is the same chain as the large-tree felling award.

Assessment

The handbook describes one assessment type: a one to one practical assessment with oral questioning by an approved City and Guilds NPTC assessor. Grading is pass only. The handbook says assessments should take no longer than 1.5 to 3 hours. Candidates have to finish within 24 months of the date of initial registration, and the handbook says registration is valid for two years. The assessor has to hold a current First Aid at Work certificate, according to the unit text.

Refresher and renewal

The Health and Safety Executive leaflet Chainsaws at work (INDG317) says all chainsaw operators should do regular refresher or update training. It suggests every two to three years for occasional users and every five years for full-time users. FISA's training guide 805, updated August 2025, says INDG317 recommends three to five years. It gives its own recommendation of recorded refresher or update training at least every five years for most machinery work, chainsaw and aerial tree work included. The two documents word the interval differently, and both are recommendations.

City and Guilds runs a CPD module for this award, 0041-16, Level 3 CPD Module in Dealing with Interwoven Stems and Part Blown Trees, Ofqual number 610/6063/X. The 2026 list shows it open to certification, with registration expiry January 8, 2027 and certification expiry January 8, 2030. The NPTC page for the CPD modules says they are for qualified operators who hold the matching certificate of competence.

The handbook for this award gives no expiry period for the certificate. Its two-year figure is the length of a registration to take the assessment.

Old codes

The City and Guilds NPTC factsheet has no award named for interwoven stems or part blown trees. Its only windblown award is the Level 3 Award in Severing Uprooted or Windblown Trees Using a Chainsaw (CS34 and CS35, 0021-02). None of the pages read links 0039-35 to an older code. See old NPTC chainsaw codes and the awards that replaced them.

Contains public sector information published by the Health and Safety Executive and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.