Parent and child – Adoption. Sheriff Appeal Court: Allowing an appeal from a sheriff's decision to refuse a local authority's applications for permanence orders with authority to adopt in respect of two brothers, aged three and four, the sheriff having concluded that the council had not established that it would be to the serious detriment of the welfare of the children to live with either of their parents, the court held that the sheriff was wrong in concluding that the threshold test of serious detriment was not met: on the proven facts there was more than sufficient material to establish that it would be seriously detrimental to the welfare of the children to return to reside with the parents; and there was also ample material to allow the court to make findings in relation to the various options for the care of the children and the respective merits and demerits thereof.