A glance at Janet Paraskeva's CV shows that she is a woman who likes a challenge. A director of the National Lottery Charities Board, she was in the hot seat when it faced a tabloid newspaper onslaught for making grants to groups helping asylum seekers and prostitutes. She became chief executive of the Law Society when it was riven with claims and counter-claims of bullying and racial discrimination.

Last year, she became First Civil Service Commissioner, and is charged with ensuring recruitment in Whitehall is fair and open. But her new job must be the biggest challenge of all.

She is chairman of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) which from next month takes over the running of the notorious Child Support Agency. MPs recently dubbed the CSA “one of the greatest public administration disasters of recent times”.

The performance of the CSA has improved greatly in the past 18 months. The infamous backlog of unresolved cases is down to 75,700 compared with 225,300 in March 2005. But Ms Paraskeva, 62, accepts that there is some way to go before the public recognises that it is an altogether different organisation from the one set up in 1993. Then, its primary aim was to cut the social security bill, so all single mothers on benefits had to register and every pound in maintenance they received from an absent father was clawed back from their income support.

Now the emphasis is on alleviating child poverty with more money getting to children the primary concern. No one has to use the CSA if they do not want to, and mothers on benefits are able to keep the first £20 a week in maintenance.

But as well as overseeing continued improvements at the CSA, Ms Paraskeva is enthusiastic about the new responsibilities CMEC has been given by the Government. “My role is to look at what the vision should be, how ambitious we can be about our new functions. It is not just about the CSA but with our new objectives of promoting financial responsibility, and giving information and support to all separating parents.”

Child Maintenance Options was launched on Monday. The cornerstone of its new approach is advising parents on setting up voluntary arrangements. A team of 200 staff, based in Sheffield, has been trained, and is supported by workers who can be called in if it is felt the couple could benefit from face-to-face meetings. “There is no question of trying to force callers to go down the route of a voluntary arrangement if they believe it won't work, Ms Paraskeva said. “They will make clear there is no stigma at all in coming back if it is all too difficult. They can come back the next day or in six months' time if it does not work out.”

Ms Paraskeva also wants CMEC to help to transform attitudes towards parental responsibility, and intends to start with the next generation of fathers. Under her plans, teenage boys will be taught there is no escape from maintenance payments if they father a child. CMEC is working with the Department of Children Schools and Families to ensure that this teaching is included in the PSHE curriculum, which is currently being reviewed.

A divorced mother herself, she speaks about the subject passionately. “We have been set the objective of improving financial responsibility and we want to change the culture among parents. When mums and dads are together they look after children together. If something happens, the non-resident parent still bears that responsibility and that includes financial responsibility, even in cases where there is no contact.”

Fact file

Who Janet Paraskeva, former chief executive of the Law Society, is chairwoman of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC)

What CMEC will take charge of the Child Support Agency. No one will be required to use its services but it will advise those who do on setting up voluntary arrangements. However, if these do not work, cases will be referred to the CSA, which now has tough enforcement powers

When November 1. The CSA will continue for the time being, with a statutory child maintenance scheme being introduced in about 2011. From then, its 1.2 million cases will be transferred to the new scheme

Why Before he stepped down, Tony Blair decided the CSA had lost the confidence of the public. It was dogged by computer failures, delays and an enormous backlog of cases, and ministers decided on an approach that will encourage more parents to make their own arrangements, with advice from the new commission

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