"And with blue-light training you may as well train them to ambulance technician standards - but, oh, that would cost money. (Although as far as I know the legislation about driving an emergency vehicle is a bit wishy-washy - any experts reading this, please do chip in)." You can drive on blues and twos if you've legally got them fitted to a vehicle - in this case one that is "used for ambulance purposes". What you can't do without taking and passing an appropriate course is the magic triumvirate of emergency service driving: ignore traffic lights, exceed the speed limit and pass to the right of keep left signs. It could still be useful to use blues and twos to clear the way without having to make use of the magic RTA exemptions. The driver training could easily come out free if it was tackled the right way. All around the country experienced police driving trainers/examiners give their free time to train people in ROSPA and AIM advanced driving schemes. I'm sure these same people would be equally happy to train up (and probably also examine) some CFRs on the same basis if someone sorted out the certification paperwork