cisco, i may be corrected here but your notice period does not formally start until you have been given an RP50 form, which is both your formal notice of redundancy, plus the confirmation of the statutory redundancy payment due to you.
It sounds to me like you being treated shoddily at best given the lack of formal communication. The length of service is another issue: when you worked your initial year "as a contractor" were you paid by your company or via an agency? If via your company you have a strong case for that initial year to be included in your length of service.
Others above have given good advice, read as much as possible online, there's a lot more there compared to a few years ago.