Letters & Physical Mail

Sending Letters

Letters are a fourth channel on the same messaging subsystem. The platform hands the document to a print and post provider, who prints, encloses and posts it.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Communication:

• Letters — the console — compose, queue and track
• Letter Stationery — letterheads and paper definitions
• Postal Address Sources — where addresses come from

Why physical mail still matters

For statutory casework it is often required rather than preferred. Some notices must be served by post, some recipients have no email, and for anything that may be challenged a posted letter with a despatch record is stronger evidence than an email.

Providers

GOV.UK Notify, Lob, ClickSend Post and PostGrid are supported. Public sector organisations already using Notify for email and text can add letters on the same account.

Stationery

Letter Stationery defines the letterhead and paper. Configure it once centrally rather than embedding a letterhead in every template — when the logo or the address changes you will want one place to change it.

Addresses

Postal Address Sources says where the address comes from. An address assembled ad hoc per template is how letters get sent to the old address; taking it from a defined source means correcting it once corrects it everywhere.

The dispatch task

Letters queue and are sent by the Letter Dispatch task, which ships disabled and should run every few minutes. Letters that sit unsent are almost always this.

Deadlines and print time

A letter takes days. Where the letter discharges a statutory obligation, the deadline is usually about despatch rather than arrival, but confirm which — and build the print provider's cut-off into your timing rather than assuming same-day.

Letters in Casework

A letter sent from a case should do three things at once: go out, be evidenced, and satisfy the deadline it exists for.

Where to find it

These features have no dedicated Architect Panel section of their own. They are configured through their datastores, opened from All Datastores, and most of what a caseworker sees appears on the record itself rather than on an admin screen.

Evidence the despatch

Record the document as sent, the address it went to and when it was despatched. Keep the document as sent rather than the template — regenerating it later shows the current wording, which is not what the recipient received.

Deemed service

Where the regime deems service a set period after posting, derive that date from the despatch date rather than typing it. In working days where the rule says working days.

Close the obligation

If the letter discharges an obligation, closing it should follow from the send rather than being a separate thing somebody remembers. An obligation left open after the letter went is a false breach, and a service chasing false breaches stops trusting the escalations.

Returned mail

Letters come back. Have a route for recording that the address is wrong, because an address you keep writing to after it bounced is one you will be asked about — particularly where the correspondence carried legal consequence.

Choosing the channel

Do not post everything because some things must be posted. Post what requires it and what the recipient needs, and use cheaper channels for the rest. A service that posts every routine update spends a great deal on paper and buries the letters that mattered.