if you have accommodation for them both without overcrowding and you have finances to support them without the need for 'recourse to public funds' then your only problem left is that of 'sole responsibility'
is the father named on the birth cert?, does the child still see his father?, is the child's mother still in talking terms with the father?..
it's better if you bring them both together, as you have already said, they have never been apart.
