Most programmes hand out levels, so that everyone leaves with something. PREP does not. An organisation either meets the standard or it does not yet — and that is exactly why the Star is worth holding.
Every Essential Hallmark is rated Delivered. Not most of them. All of them. These are the requirements below which no organisation should fall, whatever its size or sector.
The overall score across everything observed reaches at least seventy per cent. This is the test of consistency: an organisation cannot carry a weak area on the strength of a strong one.
No single domain falls below sixty per cent. This is the test of balance: an immaculate building does not excuse an indifferent welcome, and a warm team does not excuse an unclean washroom.
Hallmark ratings roll up to a Practice score, Practice scores roll up to a domain score, and the domain scores produce the overall percentage. Nothing is weighted secretly, and nothing is averaged away: the Essential Hallmarks sit outside the arithmetic as an absolute condition.
Consistently true across the organisation, observed or corroborated by the people served.
Present but inconsistent, partial, or true in some areas and not others.
Absent, or so inconsistent that a person could not rely on it.
Excluded from the score, with a recorded reason.
Reviewers arrive unannounced. There is no inspection day to prepare for, no week of tidying, no briefing the team the night before. What reviewers see is what the people you serve see.
The fee covers the cost of running a review. It buys the visit, not the outcome. Organisations that do not clear the bar do not receive the Star, and no amount of correspondence changes that.
The Star is renewed every year on a fresh unannounced review. A mark that could never be withdrawn would tell nobody anything.
A PREP Star Gym and a PREP Star Hospital cleared the same eleven domains and the same bar. Different vocabulary, identical standard.
Every organisation that earns the Star receives:
✔ The PREP Star certificate, in the name of its sector — PREP Star Hospital, PREP Star Clinic, PREP Star Wellness & Spa, PREP Star Gym or PREP Star Physiotherapy Centre.
✔ A digital badge kit, marked with the year of recognition, for the website, reception, signage and social channels.
✔ A listing on the public PREP register, with live status.
✔ A full review report, domain by domain, including everything that was strong and everything that was not.
✔ A named contact at the Secretariat for the year ahead.
Nothing is published. No “failed” list exists, and no organisation is ever named as unsuccessful — publicly or privately.
The organisation receives the same full report as a successful one, showing precisely which Hallmarks were rated Developing or Not yet, and why. A named contact at the Secretariat is available for the year. The organisation may request a fresh review after ninety days, at the review fee alone.
PREP exists to raise experience, not to rank organisations. Most organisations that come back, clear it.