CYP Now has learned that despite initially being told it had achieved an overall "good" rating, Sheffield Council was later informed by Ofsted that a further inspection visit would be required because the initial findings were flawed.
Following the additional visit the authority's overall rating was judged to be "requires improvement".
So far five inspection reports using the new framework have been published. More have been carried out but are awaiting publication.
Andrew Webb, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) said inconsistency in the quality of inspections carried out so far is "extremely concerning".
"I think the experience of local authorities in the first phase is that Ofsted needs to do quite a lot of work to ensure it is operating consistently," he said.
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