A private schools’ chief has said he would be “perfectly happy” for an independent inquiry into allegations of sexual abuse among pupils to be carried out.

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said “further work needs to be done” to address reports of sexual offences in schools and across wider society.

But he said the issue cannot be dealt with by schools alone because a lot of alleged incidents appear to have happened elsewhere in what he described as a “secret world of teenagers”.

His comments follow a series of allegations of a “rape culture” at a number of independent and state schools.

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Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) lead for child protection, urged parents to take their son to the police if they are responsible for a sexual assault.

Allegations of sex abuse in schools

Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for an inquiry into the allegations.

Mr Lenon told the PA news agency: “Personally, I’d be perfectly happy for there to be an independent inquiry because this is clearly a serious issue which needs to be dealt with across society.”

Thousands of testimonies have been given on the Everyone’s Invited website, where people can anonymously share experiences of misogyny, harassment, abuse and assault.

Mr Bailey has suggested that some schools may have covered up sexual offences to protect their reputation.

But Mr Lenon, a former headmaster of Harrow School, said private schools are taking the allegations “very seriously” and a number have commissioned independent reports to gather the facts.

“But that doesn’t lead me to think that some sort of independent inquiry wouldn’t be a perfectly sensible response - as long as it didn’t take too long,” he told PA.

During a campaign visit to Milton Keynes, Sir Keir told reporters: “I’m really worried about what we are seeing over recent days, and I know many parents will be, many school teachers and staff and, of course, young people.

“There’s got to be an inquiry and it has got to get going very fast. This is serious.”

On a possible inquiry, Mr Lenon added: “I would have thought it would be helpful if it went beyond schools.

“Clearly they are going to look at schools and there’ll be some things which schools can do or should do which other agents can’t do or won’t do.

“But if it’s going to be an independent inquiry, you’re going to want to look across the whole spectrum of institutions, and also, incidentally, of time, because we know that this is not a new problem.”

Soma Sara, founder of the Everyone’s Invited website, wrote in The Times that “rape culture is endemic”.

She said there has been a 33 per cent increase in testimonies from the state sector and a 44 per cent increase from universities since 9 March.

Ms Sara said: “It’s in all parts of society including all universities and all schools. Seeing this long-overdue discussion being narrowed down to private schools is disappointing.”

Mr Lenon told PA: “It is difficult, because the testimonies tell us that a great deal of the abuse happens outside school. It’s a sort of secret world of teenagers, and the testimonies are anonymous and undated, which makes it very hard to investigate.

“Schools are obviously doing quite a lot, but given the many difficult issues that lie behind this, further work needs to be done.

“There’s issues of causality. Is it something to do with morality, pornography, alcohol, lack of parental control, peer pressure? Who takes responsibility - is it parents, schools, universities, inspectorates?”

Mr Bailey is calling on parents to report abuse to the police, including when their own child is the perpetrator.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “If parents are aware that their son or their daughter has been a victim of abuse, then please come forward and report the abuse - your son or daughter, their account will be believed and we will deal with it appropriately.

“If, as a parent, you are aware that your son has been responsible for a sexual assault then I think you should again be taking your son to the police and saying, ‘Look, I’ve now become aware that this is what my son has done.’”

Parents and schools should educate children about pornography and the unrealistic messages it can portray about relationships, he added.

Minister for sport and tourism Nigel Huddleston said there is a new helpline for young people who have faced abuse in schools.

He told Sky News: “But we will be looking at this, and, of course, Ofsted and the inspectorate do have powers up to and including closing down schools if there’s evidence there, so we will again be looking very closely at this.

“It’s quite (an) alarming picture that’s been emerging over the last few days.”